Dartmouth Book Award for Non-Fiction
Short listed for:
2006 Charles Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction
2005 Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award
The 2005 John W. Dafoe Book Prize

The dramatic story of one of the greatest disasters in history.

In 1917, the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was crowded with ships leaving for war-torn Europe. On December 6, two of them—the Mont Blanc and the Imo—collided in the Narrows, a hard-tonavigate stretch of the harbor. The blast caused a giant wave that swept over parts of the city, followed by a slick, black rain that fell for ten minutes. In the end, more than sixteen hundred Haligonians were killed and six thousand injured; and within twenty-four hours, a blizzard had isolated Halifax from the world.

Set vividly against the background of World War I, Curse of the Narrows is the first major account of the world’s largest pre-atomic explosion, the epic relief mission from Boston, and the riveting trial of the Mont Blanc’s captain and pilot. Using primary sources—many of which haven’t been read in decades—and with a wonderful feel for narrative history, Mac Donald chronicles one of the most compelling and dramatic events of the twentieth century.

Praise for Curse of the Narrows:

“This book is like an expensive Swiss watch, meticulously crafted, perfectly assembled, and relentlessly recording, second by dreadful second, the story of one of the greatest and most lethal explosions of all time.”—Simon Winchester

“Reading Curse of the Narrows is not unlike following coverage of Hurricane Katrina: the account of the initial disaster holds us riveted…there is a present-day resonance to all parts of this tale.” —Neil Genzlinger, New York Times Book Review

“Curse of the Narrows is a story of a forgotten tragedy, meticulously researched, and a reminder, if one were still needed, of the necessity to prepare for the unforeseeable as well as the foreseen.” —Leonard Boasberg, Philadelphia Inquirer