A Single, Numberless Death by Nora Strejilevich
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 systemic 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 experiences with a realism that extends from one end of the political spectrum to the other. In this English translation of her fictional memoir Una sola muerte numerosa, Strejilevich combines autobiography, documentary journalism, fiction 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.