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Nora Strejilevich was a young woman when her brother and other family members and friends disappeared at the hands of the military junta that held power in Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Ostensibly part of a systematic campaign to eliminate left-wing terrorism, the violence perpetrated by the junta far exceeded anything the leftists ever dreamed of, enveloping not only the violent left but other dissidents and innocent civilians as well, and particularly targeting the Jewish population. A desaparecida herself, Strejilevich survived kidnapping and torture to speak of her experience with a dignified voice and a clear-eyed realism that extends from one end of the political spectrum to the other. In the first English translation of her elegant fictional memoir Una sola muerte numerosa, Strejilevich combines autobiography, documentary journalism, fiction, magical realism, and poetry to express the “choir of voices” of the more than 30,000 souls who were imprisoned and abused. She engages the reader in the history of a bloody military coup and state-sanctioned anti-Semitism, exploring themes of exile, identity, and violence. Above all, A Single, Numberless Death is Nora Strejilevich’s gripping story of survival. “Shifting from present to a past of horror in the late seventies, and an even remoter past of fond family memories, Nora Strejilevich mixes quotes from [General Jorge Rafael] Videla and [Admiral Emilio] Massera with CONADEP records and poetic fragments to convey a full picture of [Argentina’s infamous Dirty War]. . . . Truly praiseworthy.”
Nora Strejilevich is Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at San Diego State University. |
The University of
Virginia Press