The Memory Stones

(Paperback)

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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 in Miami, and wilful Graciela nineteen, and madly in love with her fianc, Jos. Those days will be the last the family ever spends together. On their return to Buenos Aires, the Argentine military stages a coup. Friends and colleagues disappear overnight, and Osvaldo is forced to flee to Europe. When Jos is abducted, Graciela goes into hiding, then vanishes in turn. Osvaldo can only witness the disintegration of his family from afar, while Yolanda fights on the ground for some trace of their beloved daughter. Soon she realises they may be fighting for an unknown grandchild as well. Heartbreaking and beautiful, The Memory Stones tells the story of the Disappeared, thousands of Argentinians who fell victim to the violence of the period. Depicting the despair and hope of one family seeking to rebuild itself after unimaginable loss, it is a lyrical, devastating portrait of a country that has come face to face with terror and the long, dark shadow it leaves behind.

Reviews

Heart-wrenching a story all of us should read * Daily Mail on Hinterland *
A moving account ... Brothers elegant prose holds sentimentality at bay, complementing some impressive reportage * Financial Times *
Intensely evocative Impressively accomplished * Independent *
An illuminating and timely story a book that haunts and shames in equal measure * Guardian *
There is poetry on every page, as well as pity, and the poetry is not always in the pity but in the joy of being alive on this earth * Irish Times *
Brothers is a writer who tackles big themes, and whose novels help us to understand the world we live in. Her second is a powerful, searing, beautifully rendered story of the disappeared of Argentina -- Alexandra Pringle * Guardian, 'Best Books of 2016' *

Author Bio

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. carolinebrothers.com @CaroBrothers