MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
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Engrossing memoir of US proxy war in El Salvador
JOHN GREEN recommends a first-hand account of time spent in one of the most dangerous countries on Earth
Andres (Drew) McKinley is a mining specialist and environmental activist at Universidad Centroamericana El Salvador
MATTHEW HAWKINS rakes through un-fancy words and flair-free summaries to find who and what might be flamboyant
PETER MASON is exhilarated by an exciting, well-considered and historically minded tribute to the great Trinidadian instrument
Reducing historical lives to ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles, we lose the nuance of those lives and a clearer understanding of past societies, suggests CLAIRE ISABELLA GILMOUR
CHRIS SEARLE relishes the genius of pianist Alexander Hawkins, his many ensembles, and his new album
For the Love of the Struggle: Memoirs from El Salvador
by Andres McKinley
(Daraja Press, £16.99)
NORMALLY, I’d be wary of a book written by a North American who cut his teeth as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Africa which is purportedly about the struggles of people in a poor country.
But this book disabused me of that prejudice.
Its author Andres McKinley spent several decades living and working in El Salvador among the peasants and the guerillas and his experience gave rise to this incredibly moving and well-written narrative of the daily heroism of El Salvador’s people in the face of insurmountable odds.
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