PRISONER WITHOUT A NAME, CELL WITHOUT A NUMBER - Book review

Jacobo Timerman’s autobiographical book Prisoner without a name, Cell without a Number was published in 1980, its English translation released in 1981.

Timerman was the editor of La Opinión, Argentina’s leading liberal newspaper. The paper was not popular with the military government because he was not averse to castigate both the Left and the Right for human rights abuses. Inevitably, it came to a head one dawn in ‘April 1977 some twenty civilians besieged my apartment in midtown Buenos Aires. They said they were obeying orders from the Tenth Infantry Brigade of the First Army Corps’ (p9). He was covered with a blanket and bundled in a car and taken away. Eventually, blindfolded and handcuffed, he discovered he was kidnapped ‘by the extremist sector of the army’ (p29) ...which was at the heart of Nazi operations in Argentina...  In effect, they mistakenly believed he was part of a Jewish anti-Argentine conspiracy!

He was held for two and a half years – tortured, abused and humiliated – without charges ever being brought against him.

It was probably because he was internationally known and his wife continued to raise awareness of his plight that he was not murdered – or ‘disappeared’. Certainly, he believed that his only crime was to be born Jewish.

‘Entire families disappeared. The bodies were covered in cement and thrown to the bottom of the Plata or Paraná rivers. Sometimes the cement was badly applied and corpses were washed up along the coasts of Argentina and Uruguay... (others were) thrown into old cemeteries under existing graves... (and some) heaved into the middle of the ocean from helicopters... (while others were) dismembered and burned... Small children were turned over to grandparents or more commonly presented to childless couples in Chile, Paraguay, and Brazil ...’ (p50/51).

Then in late 1979, his citizenship of Argentina was revoked and he was expelled from the country, and then resided in Israel.

Timerman was born in Bar, Ukraine, to Jewish parents. To escape the Russian persecution of Jews and pogroms there, the family emigrated to Argentina in 1928, when he was five years old.

This is a searing account of a brave man. He died in November, 1999, aged 76.

FALLING - Book review

 

With a really striking cover and almost four pages of praise from other authors and periodicals, this debut novel Falling by T J Newman cries out to be read. 

On this occasion, the hype is not overplayed.

From the traumatic beginning, it grabs the interest and never lets go. Airline pilot Bill Hoffman has taken on an extra shift, to fly Coastal Airways Airbus A320, Flight 416, from Los Angeles to New York – much to the disappointment of his wife Carrie and son Scott. He was going to miss his son’s big Little League game. 

Bill’s co-pilot is Ben Miro, and his aircrew is Big Daddy, Jo and newbie Kellie.

Shortly after take-off, Bill gets a message on his laptop. The private message and an image – of his wife, son and baby daughter held captive in their home. There’s a suicide vest strapped to Carrie’s chest… 

The captor is succinct. Bill has a choice: he must choose to crash the plane to save his family. 

Bill tells the kidnapper: ‘I’m not going to crash this plane and you’re not going to kill my family.’

A battle of wills begins. 

On the ground, the FBI gets involved – I won’t say how, but it’s necessary to heighten the tension.

And there’s plenty of tension.

The characters are well drawn and sympathetic, the background details seem highly authentic – Newman was a flight attendant with Virgin America for ten years. 

Recommended.

Newman tried 41 literary agents before finding one to enthuse over her book. After a bidding war with 14 major studios, Universal Pictures won the film rights to the book. They may need to change the film title, though, since there’s a 2020 film called Falling with Viggo Mortensen starring.

Containing Cocentaina

Spanish Eye contains 22 cases from Leon Cazador, half-English, half-Spanish private eye.  It was published in November 2013 by Crooked Cat Publishing.

The vast majority of these cases are based on true events…  The short story ‘Burning Issue’ was first published in magazine format in 2007: here is a brief excerpt:

Burning Issue

“They were bold and efficient.”

Landscape defines some towns and cities. And even the people and the small mountain town of Cocentaina were perhaps typical. So I thought, as I drove Jacinto Alvarez and his wife, Puri, along the A7 on our approach. The town had been under siege more than once in its history and I reflected that that was how the Alvarez couple felt right now.

In the passenger seat, Jacinto hugged the bulging dark leather briefcase to his pigeon chest and sweated despite the efficient air-conditioning. Puri was in the back, fingering her worry beads and praying.

The town sprawled outwards from the eastern slope of the Sierra de Mariola. Its historic heart still beat behind the modern facade of new apartment blocks and factory units that produced textiles and furniture.

The Alvarez textiles were almost exclusively purchased by the design shops of Amancio Ortega for transforming into the latest fashions in the Ortega Empire, for outlets such as Zara, Massimo Dutti and Bershka. Where Ortega was valued in billions, Jacinto Alvarez was close to making his first million. Which, sadly, made him and his family a target for the ungodly, and that’s why he got in touch with me and told me what happened.

Now that ETA had gone relatively quiet, kidnapping was not so commonplace in Spain, unlike Sicily, any South American country or Mexico.

*

Well, I said it was brief…

Panoroma of Cocentaina

 

On approaching the modest town of Cocentaina, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was simply an industrial estate, hardly likely to appear on any tourist itinerary. Yet, past the defensive wall of textile and furniture warehouses you’ll find a charming haven. The historic part of the town is divided into two zones, El Raval, the ancient Moslem neighbourhood, and La Vila, the area inside the walls that protected the Christians from the Moors. While the streets of El Raval rise in terraces up the hill in the direction of the Ermita Santa Barbara, most of the architectural and historical life lies in La Vila.

 

Castle                                       Convent

The centre of Cocentaina was the Palau Comtal, historical home of the Corella family, whose crest features a woman’s head atop the body of a serpent. Adjoining the Palau is the Convento Y Monasterio de la Virgen del Milagro, ornate, colourful, gilded. Keeping a watchful eye over the town is the Castillo, the tower built in about 1400 or so.

To find out what Leon Cazador and Jacinto are doing in Cocentaina, please read the book.

 

 

Spanish Eye paperback post-free worldwide from here

 Kindle UK from here

Kindle via Amazon com from here