Hell's Gorge traces a heroic dream that spanned four centuries: to build a canal linking the Atlantic & Pacific oceans. The human cost was immense: in appalling working conditions & amid epidemics of fever, tens of thousands perished fighting the jungle, swamps & mountains of Panama, a scale of attrition comparable to many great battles.
Matthew Parker explores the fierce geo-political struggle behind the heroic vision of the canal, & the immense engineering & medical battles that were fought. But he also weaves in the stories of the ordinary men & women who worked on the canal, to evoke everyday life on the construction & depict the battle on the ground deep in