In Conversation with Michael Magazanik.

 

Listen to Michael speak at the Belmont Library on
September 3 - BOOK NOW!
http://www.grlc.vic.gov.au/events/michael-magazanik-silent-shock

In 1962, Melbourne woman Lyn Rowe was born with no arms and no legs: her mother Wendy had been given a new ‘wonder drug’ for morning sickness called thalidomide. In 2011, after almost fifty years of struggle and poverty, Lyn won a multimillion-dollar settlement from the drug’s distributor Distillers—the first compensation she had ever received.

Extracts of the book have been published in the Good Weekend here:

 

In Silent Shock, lawyer Michael Magazanik tells Lyn Rowe’s story. He also lifts the lid on how the thalidomide tragedy was allowed to happen, and how the guilty did their best to get away with it.

How Grunenthal, the drug’s German manufacturer, made a deadly drug a best-seller, suppressed early reports of serious side-effects, fought to discredit critics and to evade responsibility.

How Australian distributor Distillers focused its marketing campaign on thalidomide’s supposed ‘outstanding’ safety, including when taken during pregnancy.

How both these companies took refuge for decades in the myth that the whole scandal was just a tragic accident, unavoidable within the safety standards prevailing at the time.

And for the first time, Magazanik exposes the shocking cover-up at the heart of Distillers’ Australian thalidomide operation. Magazanik is a former journalist and is one of the lawyers who ran Lyn’s case.

Silent Shock is a crucial exposé of a fifty-year cover up and an epic account of corporate villainy against a backdrop of heroic personal struggle and sacrifice.

 

Silent Shock has been reviewed in the Age and Sydney morning Herald:

 

 

Michael Magazanik has worked as a journalist for the Age, Australian and ABC TV, and is now a lawyer with Slater & Gordon. He lives in Melbourne with his partner and three children.

 

 

 

Listen to Michael speak at the Belmont Library on
September 3 - BOOK NOW!
http://www.grlc.vic.gov.au/events/michael-magazanik-silent-shock