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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel | Thoughts

   Published : 2021   ||    Format : print   ||    Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El

Holocaust Remembrance Day

I quite forgot to mention this in my Sunday Salon post, so I'm writing a separate post.

Today is the Holocaust Remembrance Day, in commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. Go ahead an read some book about this period. Jennifer G. has compiled a very good list of books in her post today. In addition, if you are a TV show buff, I would recommend Band of Brothers and The Pacific. I plan to catch up with the episodes of The Pacific during this week. Both the TV shows are based on several non-fiction books that extensively chronicle the horrors of the World War 2.

Comments

My Masters work was on the Holocaust (and my dissertation would have been as well, but I realized I loved teaching too much). There are so many good Holocaust memoirs out there!

And, Band of Brothers is wonderful! I haven't seen Pacific yet.
Athira said…
Helen, I second that! There definitely are plenty of books based on that time period! I loved BoB too! :)
Thanks for spreading the word!

I don't watch a lot of tv, so I haven't seen either show. I wonder if I can add them to my Netflix? Off to check.
Athira said…
Jennifer, both shows are available to view on the HBO website, in case netflix doesn't work out. But they are worth watching! Awesome shows!
Anonymous said…
That must be part of the reason why PBS showed The Diary of Anne Frank last night. No matter how many times I read the book, or see a play or film, I weep. It's so heartbreaking that so many people suffered so tragically. I think what's also frightening is that it doesn't seem so impossible that it could happen again in this crazy world. When I was little, I used to think it was just an isolated incident, now I'm not so sure that we couldn't see our government becoming so radical in this day and age. I suspect that's just fear and distrust speaking, when once I believed in whom we voted for.
Athira said…
Bellezza, that is probably why! I haven't watched that movie, but read the book last year and cried a lot... all that tragedy. And I share your sentiment.. there are many times I feel that it can happen again. Even if a full scale war hasn't happened since, we have had revolutions and bloodshed in so many countries (and still happening) that it really breaks me.
Lisa said…
I listened to a radio program today with a holocaust survivor speaking. She had me in tears time and again. I fear that when all of the survivors are gone, the full horror of what happened will begin to dim.
Athira said…
Lisa, that is a thought that has often crossed my mind. Right now, we have so many legacies speaking to us.. years later, there will be none, how then do we keep this memory intact so that it never happens again?