ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
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Letters from Latin America
Continental concerns, from north-east Argentina to the US-Mexican border
Beautifully lyrical: Selva Almada
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
SELVA ALMADA’S debut novel The Wind That Lays Waste (Charco Press, £9.99) is set in the north-eastern region of Argentina, a place of lush rainforests, lowland plains and forested valleys.
It’s a rich and varied region, where the weather reigns supreme — from wet and humid summers and warm winters to extended periods of drought and abundant rain.
That natural environment is the setting for Almada’s book, which begins as Reverend Pearson and his daughter Leni stop at a workshop owned by old mechanic Gringo Bauer and his young son Tapioca after their car breaks down.
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