HarperCollins released The Girl from Kathmandu, Twelve Dead Men and a Woman’s Quest for Justice, a non-fiction book by award-winning investigative journalist Cam Simpson. Nearly 14 years in the making, the book follows the tragic story of the massacre of twelve Nepali men who were deceived into working for a U.S. government defense contractor during the Iraq War, and the efforts by one of the men’s widows to find justice for her husband and the other victims.
Shining a light on the scourge of international labor trafficking, Cam Simpson traces the sordid history of the U.S. defense contractor industry that gave rise to the trafficking pandemic that has plagued the war zones created by the U.S. military and its private contractors.
A significant portion of the book follows the court cases that were brought on behalf of the massacred men’s families, who were represented by Matthew Handley and his colleagues during more than ten years of litigation. From Kathmandu, to remote Himalayan villages, to a courtroom in Houston, Cam Simpson recounts many of the events that formed the foundation of Mr. Handley’s focus on representation of exploited workers abroad. Such focus continues to be a cornerstone of the work now pursued by Handley Farah & Anderson.