A major environmental scandal hidden in plain sight. In France's Caribbean territories, hundreds of thousands poisoned, soil and water contaminated for centuries, and a generation of children's health compromised. Yet outside the French-speaking world, few have heard of chlordecone.

The scandal begins in 1960s Martinique, where a handful of powerful families—descendants of colonial plantation owners—controlled the island's economic lifeblood: banana farming. When a devastating banana weevil infestation threatened to destroy their empire, the French Ministry of Agriculture fast-tracked approval of a new U.S.-born pesticide called Kepone. Despite its extreme toxicity to humans, the chemical was dumped across plantations, seeping deep into the ecosystem and creating an environmental nightmare that persists today.

While the United States banned chlordecone in the 1970s after recognizing its dangers, France turned a blind eye. Their priority? Keeping French bananas on the market—at any cost. The "miracle solution" continued poisoning French Caribbean plantations until 1993, and only the relentless efforts of a few determined scientists and one whistleblower finally exposed the truth.

“Les Empoisonneurs” (The Poisoners) unravels how chemical industry lobbyists, corrupt pesticide manufacturers, and government officials in bed with the banana industry orchestrated one of France's worst environmental catastrophes. "Les Empoisonneurs" reveals how a government abandoned its most fundamental duty—protecting the health of its people—and the devastating price paid by those left behind.

Forthcoming in French from Grasset, this urgent investigation sheds light on a scandal that continues to haunt France's Caribbean territories today.