RITA DI SANTO draws attention to a new film that features Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn, and their personal experience of media misrepresentation
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Letters from Latin America with Leo Boix: April 7, 2025
Travelogue/reportage by Argentinean Maria Sonia Cristoff, and poetry by Peruvian Gaston Fernandez and Puerto Rican Cristina Perez Diaz
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson
KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces
ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in a hugely enjoyable but deadly serious examination of the 1930s, that is an indictment of our own era
The bard distills our hellish times into fiery words
PATAGONIA, a vast region located at the southern extremity of South America, presents an array of otherworldly landscapes, encompassing the Andes mountain range, crystalline lakes and fjords, temperate forests, glaciers, and boundless deserts and steppes.
Maria Sonia Cristoff’s work, False Calm (Daunt Books, £10.99), seeks to challenge the idyllic perception of Patagonia by recounting the stories of several ghost towns that were negatively affected by the decline of the oil boom.
This non-fiction book serves as both a travelogue and a personal essay, guiding the author to the peripheries of Patagonia. It may resonate with admirers of Bruce Chatwin, Susan Sontag, or WG Sebald, as each of the 10 essays intricately intertwines the stories of individuals and communities abandoned by the hydrocarbon industry, enriched with anecdotes, vignettes, and ethereal descriptions expertly translated by Katherine Silver.
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