Departing at Dawn: A Novel of Argentina's Dirty War

"I just loved it because of its immense human depth and high quality of writing."--David William Foster, author, critic, and professor

"Deeply endearing. . . . The author offers no apologies or heroes, only humble beings . . . whose portraits are remarkably true-to-life. All kinds of readers will recognize themselves somewhere in this compelling narrative."--Artenauta periodico de cultura

March 23, 1976. Berta watches as her lover, Atilio, a union organizer, is thrown from a window to his death on the sidewalk below. The next day, Colonel Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo stages a coup d'etat and a military dictatorship takes control of Argentina. Though never a part of Atilio's union efforts, Berta is on a list to be "disappeared" and flees to relatives in the countryside. There she becomes part of the family she knows only from old photographs: Aunt Avelina, who blasts music from an old record player; Uncle Nepomuceno, who watches slugs slither in the garden every afternoon; and Uncle Javier, who sits in his tiny grocery store day and night. When Berta learns that government officials are still looking for her, she realizes she must run even further to save her life.

Gloria Lise describes a terrifying period in her nation's history with a touch that is light yet penetrating. A powerful portrait of Argentinians caught up in traumas that have haunted the country ever since.

Gloria Lise is a lawyer, professor, and accomplished musician. She was fifteen years old in 1976 when a coup d'etat overthrew the elected government of Isabel Martinez dePeron. |||This book is sold in the US by Sony Electronics Inc. |||This book is sold in Canada by Sony Electronics Inc.

This quiet, powerful novel from Argentinian author Lise is told by a young woman caught up in the country's March 1976 coup d'etat. As General Videla's thugs prepare to overturn the government of General Peron's widow, 20-year-old medical student Berta witnesses her Peronist lover thrown off a balcony. Fearing for her safety as the province of Tucuman succumbs to chaos, Berta flees to her mother's sister, then to the family's hardscrabble farm at Olpa to live with her uncle. Nearly two years pass at this idyllic outpost, with time spent among a happily mixed community descended from original Spaniards and native Indians, where Berta uses her medical training to aid the local, aging midwife, before danger encroaches again. Avoiding ponderous political allegory with graceful writing, lawyer and professor Lise sketches Berta's quest for autonomy and self against the vivid, violent backdrop of a country seeking the same: "Argentina was like an unfinished poem somebody was keeping in a bottle, for later." (Aug.)
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• Published by

  The Feminist Press

• Publish Date

  July 31, 2009 

• Print ISBN

  1558616039

• eBook ISBN

  9781558616479

• Imprint

  The Feminist Press

• Filesize

  652.49 KB

• Number of Print Pages*

  160

* Number of eBook pages may differ. Click here for more information.