The Call
A Portrait of Survival
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Remove from wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Adding to library failed
Please try again
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.
The Call
Pre-order Now for £18.16
-
Narrated by:
“Infused with the intensity of a thriller and with such poetic force, The Call is 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 Good & Evil and Other Stories
In 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.
Over the course of two years, Argentine journalist Leila Guerriero sat down to interview Labayru and her family, friends, children, lovers, and ex-militants. With The Call, 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.
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
Critic reviews
“This book is crucial to an understanding of the devastation wrought by authoritarianism, not only in society at large but also in terms of the personal, of the body, of inheritance. A woman who was used as a spoil of war, who was exploited and later maligned—this enigmatic woman, Silvia, bares herself to Leila Guerriero's insatiable curiosity and intelligence. It's an unforgettable encounter, and a contemporary classic.” —Mariana Enriquez, author of Our Share of Night
“Stunning, overwhelming, and utterly, brilliantly, painfully affecting.” —Philippe Sands, author of East West Street and 38 Londres Street
“What moves me about this book is what unspools as the pages turn: the portrayal of a female journalist in pursuit of the lives of others, comparing their memories and their blind spots and their versions of the past, asking questions again and again to get close to a humble truth about who we are as human beings, all with the awareness of the profound difficulty of understanding others.” —Juan Gabriel Vásquez, author of The Shape of the Ruins
“Infused with the intensity of a thriller and with such poetic force, The Call is a masterclass in writing an impossible book. A hundred years from now, we’ll still be talking about this tour de force of Leila Guerriero’s.” —Samanta Schweblin, National Book Award-winning author of Good & Evil and Other Stories
“Leila Guerriero’s journalism is that of the New Yorker’s best writers: It requires rigorous work, exhaustive investigations, and a style of mathematical precision.” —Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
“Stunning, overwhelming, and utterly, brilliantly, painfully affecting.” —Philippe Sands, author of East West Street and 38 Londres Street
“What moves me about this book is what unspools as the pages turn: the portrayal of a female journalist in pursuit of the lives of others, comparing their memories and their blind spots and their versions of the past, asking questions again and again to get close to a humble truth about who we are as human beings, all with the awareness of the profound difficulty of understanding others.” —Juan Gabriel Vásquez, author of The Shape of the Ruins
“Infused with the intensity of a thriller and with such poetic force, The Call is a masterclass in writing an impossible book. A hundred years from now, we’ll still be talking about this tour de force of Leila Guerriero’s.” —Samanta Schweblin, National Book Award-winning author of Good & Evil and Other Stories
“Leila Guerriero’s journalism is that of the New Yorker’s best writers: It requires rigorous work, exhaustive investigations, and a style of mathematical precision.” —Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
No reviews yet