The Memory Stones

by Caroline Brothers

Overview

The compelling story of a young woman's disappearance in 1970s Argentina, a story of family tragedy--and national tragedy--with consequences echoing through generations.

Buenos Aires, 1976. In the heat of summer, the Ferrero family escapes to the lush expanse of Tigre. Osvaldo, a distinguished doctor, and his wife Yolanda gather with their daughters, sensible Julieta who lives with her husband in Miami, and willful Graciela--nineteen, radiant, and madly in love with her fiancé, José. It will be the last time they are all together.

On their return, the military Junta stages a coup, and Osvaldo is forced to flee to Europe as friends and colleagues disappear overnight. When José is abducted, Graciela goes into hiding; when she and her friends are dragged from an apartment by plainclothes policemen, the devastating reality of the Junta is no longer remote. Osvaldo can only witness the disintegration of his family from afar, while Yolanda fights on the ground to find and reclaim their beloved daughter. Soon they realize they may be fighting for an unknown grandchild as well.

The Memory Stones commemorates the thousands of Argentinians--the Disappeared--who fell victim to the brutality of the period, the effects of which are still being felt today. Following one family seeking to rebuild itself after unimaginable loss, it is the story--both heartbreaking and inspiring--of a country striving to survive even in the face of terror.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632860170
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	10/25/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
File size:	903 KB

About the Author

Caroline Brothers was born in Australia. She has a PhD in history from University College London and has worked as a foreign correspondent in Europe and Latin America, and as a journalist at the International New York Times. She is the author of War and Photography, and the novel Hinterland. She divides her time between London and Paris.
www.carolinebrothers.com

@CaroBrothers

Editorial Reviews

08/08/2016
Set in Buenos Aires in the mid 1970s and Mexico City in the late ’90s, Brothers’s (Hinterland) novel moves back and forth between the final meeting of the Ferrero family at their coastal getaway Tigre—a quiet time before a storm of violence seizes Argentina—and the aftermath of their life after the political storm has swept through. Osvaldo Ferrero, a respected doctor, and his wife, Yolanda, escape to their beach home for a few days with their daughters—the older, dispassionate Julieta (in her 20s) and youthfully ardent Graciela (19), who is madly in love. These will be the final days the family ever spends together. On their return to Buenos Aires, the Argentine military stages a coup. Friends vanish overnight, and Osvaldo is forced to flee. When Graciela and her fiancé are abducted, Osvaldo must helplessly stand aside as the political turmoil unfolds. But Yolanda takes to the streets to look for a clue pointing to the location of Graciela. As her sleuthing takes an unexpected turn, Yolanda believes she might also be looking for a grandchild she’s never met. Brothers’s harrowing novel tells the disturbing story of the Disappeared—thousands of Argentinians who were kidnapped or murdered during the ’70s in Argentina—with verve and grace. Depicting the despair and hope of a family recovering from the horrors of military rule, it is a devastating portrait of a country in the grip of true terror, and the long, dark shadow such systemic violence leaves behind. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"The story honors the heroism of the mothers and grandmothers of the missing . . . The first half is tense and dramatic, yet the story becomes truly remarkable later on . . . Evocative scenes at a Greek archaeological site emphasize the challenge of uncovering the past, whether it be more than two millennia ago or just two decades earlier." - Booklist

"Beautiful yet heartbreaking prose . . . Even Brothers’ imagery is dark and haunting . . . Yet within that darkness there is the beauty that can only be found in love and hope." - Washington Independent Review of Books

"Brothers adeptly synthesizes stories gathered as a reporter in France into a forceful account of two prototypical lost boys as they hazard 'the great lottery' of a journey across Europe. Brothers has the seasoned journalist's eye for idiosyncratic detail and a sense for the riveting turnabouts that keep readers as off balance as her characters." —New York Times Book Review on HINTERLAND

"A compassionate and vigorous tale." —Publishers Weekly on HINTERLAND

"A moving account . . . Brothers' elegant prose holds sentimentality at bay, complimenting some impressive reportage." —Financial Times on HINTERLAND

"An illuminating and timely story . . . a book that haunts and shames in equal measure." —The Guardian on HINTERLAND

"Brothers shines a powerful light on the shadowy world of cross-boarder refugees in this compelling and empathetic account of two children seeking a chance at life a long way from home." —Library Journal on HINTERLAND

"A debut that personalizes a humanitarian crisis." —Kirkus Reviews on HINTERLAND

From the Publisher

2016-08-01
After 19-year-old Graciela Ferrero and her fiance are "disappeared" by Argentina's military junta in the summer of 1976 during a coup, her parents, Osvaldo and Yolanda, devote their lives to finding her—or, failing that, the baby with whom they learn she was pregnant.To add to the parents' anguish, Osvaldo, a distinguished physician, has been forced to flee to Paris to avoid reprisals for the editorial cartoons he contributed to a local magazine. With their married older daughter, Julieta, living in Miami, safe but distant, the family couldn't be more divided. Plenty of bad news awaits, but Osvaldo and Yolanda's hopes for finding their granddaughter, Ana, refuse to fade even as the years go by. With no knowledge of her origins—or the meaning of the identifying crosses Graciela shrewdly etched behind her ear with a needle—she has been raised by a loving family with its own hidden truths. While in the military, her adoptive father was guilty of atrocities. Brothers, who as a journalist spent time in Latin America, is at her best capturing the pitched atmosphere of Buenos Aires as the coup unfolds. "It's as if something has interfered with the barometer, pressure added to the air we breathe," says Osvaldo, by then accustomed to the "pop-pop of gunshots" in the middle of the night and pots and saucepans rattling as tanks roll through town. As solid as the storytelling is, though, and as much as the events resonate with today's political upheavals, the novel is too controlled and conventional to have the kind of nervy impact it should—or avoid being dwarfed by actual events. It's almost too pleasurable a read. Australian native Brothers' epic about an Argentine family torn apart by the 1976 military coup is enjoyable as it goes but lacks the creative spark or sense of risk to stand apart.

Kirkus Review