Naming the Spirits
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Book Overview
No one who read Lawrence Thornton's stunning debut novel, Imagining Argentina, will ever forget its mesmerizing narrative voice, its mixture of realism and magic, or its haunting story of Argentina's Disappeared -- the thousands who vanished without a trace during their country's Dirty War. Now Thornton, in an electrifying new work, returns to Argentina in the tale of a young woman's mysterious resurrection following a massacre in a killing field. After walking across the pampas, she appears on a doorstep in Buenos Aires, where she is taken in by a couple, both physicians, whose fierce reliance on the rational, explainable world has been shaken by their own daughter's disappearance. Locked inside the girl -- mute but for her first words on arrival, "I am" -- are the stories and names of eleven Argentinians executed in the night, representing the hope and despair of a people struggling to heal the devastating scars left by one fallen regime. The ghostly voices of these eleven carry the narrative of Thornton's powerful novel, lending a moving lyricism to its searing story of loss and redemption. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0385475527
ISBN13:9780385475525
Release Date:August 1995
Publisher:Doubleday Books
Length:257 Pages
Weight:0.85 lbs.
Dimensions:1.0" x 5.9" x 8.6"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
A Gentle Story About "The Disappeared"
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
In "Naming the Spirits' Lawrence Thornton manages to tell the stories of Argentina's disappeared without overstating the torture and murder. He tells just enough to make the reader feel the fear and tension, without making you want to turn away. The story has a quiet, spiritual pace with different chapters narrated by different victims, survivors, and even murderers. While it took me a few chapters to figure out how the different stories were related , the narrations themselves were always fascinating. This is one of those books that you might not fully appreciate until the final pages when all the parts form a whole.
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