{"product_id":"the-call","title":"The Call","description":"\u003cb\u003eA clear-eyed, haunting story of an ordinary woman struggling to survive captivity, and its aftermath, in the volatile world of 1970s Argentina \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Infused with the intensity of a thriller and with such poetic force, \u003ci\u003eThe Call \u003c\/i\u003eis a masterclass. A hundred years from now, we'll still be talking about this tour de force.\" --Samanta Schweblin, National Book Award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eGood \u0026amp; Evil and Other Stories\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn December 1976, twenty-year-old Silvia Labayru, five months pregnant, was kidnapped by paramilitary soldiers and taken to a clandestine Buenos Aires detention center called ESMA where thousands of people were tortured and murdered. For years, Labayru was forced to perform slave labor, repeatedly raped, and coerced into playing a part in a military operation that resulted, to international outrage, in the high-profile disappearance of three Argentine activists and two French nuns. When Labayru was finally freed in 1979, she fled to Madrid, where she thought the agony was over--but the Argentine expat community condemned her, accusing her of collusion with her captors. Nonetheless, she built a life for herself in Spain, until, decades later, she received a phone call from an ex-lover, with whom she returns to Argentina, her beloved homeland and the site of her indescribable trauma. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOver the course of two years, Argentine journalist Leila Guerriero sat down to interview Labayru and her family, friends, children, lovers, and ex-militants. With \u003ci\u003eThe Call\u003c\/i\u003e, she has woven their voices together into a polyphonic picture of a woman, a family, an ex-pat community, and a nation wading through memories distorted by trauma and edited by fear, shame, denial, and hubris. Portraitist and investigator, archaeologist and witness--Guerriero has earned comparisons to Svetlana Alexievich for her ability to excavate facts even as she wrings from them a propulsive tale of redemption, memory, and betrayal.","brand":"Knopf Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48833695121613,"sku":"9798217207947","price":38.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0557\/1529\/9533\/files\/imageloader_5db80a51-7d4b-43a3-bd54-80b6e86a9971.jpg?v=1790894398","url":"https:\/\/booksatmidnight.com\/products\/the-call","provider":"Books At Midnight","version":"1.0","type":"link"}