"The Grandmothers are not afraid. The worst that could happen to them has already happened. Their voices challenge the military regime that continues to deny the existence of the disappeared" Strong words from the Grandmothers of the Plaza De Mayo, set up by a group of grandmothers in Buenos Aires in 1977 whose children were among the thousands of 'disappeared' following the military coup of 1976-1983. Among the disappeared were many young people, including what is estimated to be 500 pregnant women. They gave birth to their babies while imprisoned, were subsequently disposed of and their babies adopted out to military families. This powerful and heart wrenching novel is the fictional story of one family, although if you do some on-line research, this story could be that of any one of the real families. To date 126 grandchildren have been located and identified, often bringing about considerable emotional shock and trauma for the grandchildren themselves, who had no idea at all of their origins.
In this story, Osvaldo Ferrero, a surgeon, and his wife Yolanda, a teacher, have two daughters. Julieta has married and lives in Florida, while Graciela, still a student is engaged to Jose, who works with the city's poor, empowering them with jobs, education. Once martial law takes over in 1976, the reign of terror begins. Osvaldo is forced to flee Argentina as the result of a cartoon he draws which is published in a left wing paper. Jose and by association Graciela are taken away, never to be seen again. Yolanda is left, in total despair, fear and shock, to continue living in her ruined city. She joins the Grandmothers and so begins her search for her daughter and Jose. Meantime Osvaldo lives in exile in Paris, never to be a surgeon again.
For many years, the rest of the world never really knew what was going on in Argentina, and so it is for Osvaldo and Yolanda. Osvaldo is consumed with guilt at deserting his wife and daughter, Yolanda is completely powerless in her role as mother and wife not being able to do either, Julieta cannot visit her mother for fear of not being allowed to return to Florida, and Graciela, well, we pretty much know what happened to her. But nothing remains secret forever, and as the months and years pass, snippets of information come to the couple, and they are slowly able to piece together what happened to their daughter. Over the course of 20-30 years, they come to terms with the shattering of their family, just one with hundreds of other families and in the end find a way to move forward.
As you can imagine there is a lot of very intense emotion going on here, and the author is brilliant at capturing what is going on the hearts and souls of the characters. We have no idea really what it would be like to be in the situation of any of the characters, how we would feel, or behave, but the author makes it very easy for us to imagine the horror, the distress, the fear and awfulness of it all. I loved this book, it was a total page turner, although I feel it did drag a little in the middle. Doesn't stop me giving it 5 out of 5. I couldn't help but become a little consumed with the fact that this only happened forty years ago, very recent history, and how quickly lives and a society can be ripped apart by the power crazy actions of a few.
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