A call can save many lives, but if that call is narrated Leila Guerriero it takes on a lot more life. The Argentine journalist is one of the protagonists of the non-fiction writing of the first quarter with the story of Silvia Labayru, a reprisal of the Argentine dictatorship who survived a birth in the concentration camp that was the Argentine Military Superior School (ESMA) but he also suffered the rejection of the Argentine exile in Spain. Leila describes in The Call: a portraitedited by Anagrama, with great depth and details the personal history of Silvia Labayru, which is impossible to separate from the collective history of Argentina. Additionally, we were lucky enough to have Leila Guerriero on the program to tell us what it was like to face this story.
And yes we talk about stories, one of the most repeated and studied of our time is Brexit. We have all been able to see news, essays, films, series or other formats that analyzed the before and during of the decision that changed the course of the United Kingdom, but now, how is the British country? That’s the question it answers Ana Carbajosa in his book An island adrift, published by Peninsula. In her story, the journalist travels through all the places of a “disunited” kingdom, as the author tells it, in which the social, cultural, political, identity and economic fractures come to light after turning the page on Brexit and opening the a crisis caused by the COVID pandemic, which may worsen after the death of a unifying figure such as Queen Elizabeth II.
In the tour of the non-fiction books of this season we could not leave aside current affairs, because in recent days we have been able to see How the Canarians took to the streets to protest against mass tourism and it coincides with one of the books that has touched me the most during these months, I was here and I remembered us (Anagram) of Anna Pacheco. This is a story about tourism, class and work, about how tourism is transforming the face of our cities. Tourism, which has served as an economic engine in many places for many other people, is becoming an unsustainable industry. In the book, the writer explores the contradiction between the luxury that tourism sells and the social and work reality of the people who work in them.
Since we have talked about tourism, we are going to recommend a different travel book, which is focused on the Balkans from a historical, political, cultural, and football point of view. This combination, which seems strange, is only possible thanks to a few, among whom is the author of Balkan Chronicles (Against), Axel Torres. The sports journalist travels through the territories of Albania, Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina to elucidate how their inhabitants relate to both football and political life. with ethnic tensions, national traditions or cultural enmities that arise between the protagonists.
The last of my recommendations is a non-book, although many people call it that, because its authors call it a magazine, the 5W Magazine. This year andIt is focused on the group of the future, young peopleand through all formats of written journalism, the different authors of 5W deal with international stories, such as the revolts in Thailand where young people no longer accept to pay total homage to their king, mental health, with interviews with athletes like Bojan Krkic, or aesthetics, with a report that tells us about cheap aesthetic operations.
Cover of ‘Balkan Chronicles’
