The Memory Stones by Caroline Brothers

Members gave The Memory Stones high marks for a well written, credible and poignant story which crystallised for us a period of brutal Argentinian political history about which we had known little.

Some of us remembered the media coverage of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires and their placards and photos showing their “disappeared” family members. But the history of the so-called Dirty War was unknown to us.

To save you rushing to Wikipedia, in summary a right-wing military coup in 1976 overthrew the populist Argentinian government led by Isabel Martinez de Peron. This led to seven years of state terrorism and widespread repression of the general population.

All forms of opposition were suppressed by the junta from anyone believed to be a left-wing sympathiser - including not only communist guerrillas but also students, militants, trade unionists, writers, journalists, and artists. Methods of suppression included imprisonment, mass shootings, torture and rape. It is estimated between 9,000 and 30,000 people were killed or ‘disappeared’ without trace or record of their fate. Many were thrown - drugged and naked - from aeroplanes into rivers and seas. Their unidentifiable bodies washed up in neighbouring Uruguay.

Faced with increasing public opposition and severe economic problems, the military government tried to regain popularity by occupying the disputed Falkland Islands. However, after Argentina’s defeat in the resulting Falklands War the military government was forced to step aside in disgrace to allow for free elections in late 1983.

The democratic government of Raul Alfonsin was elected to office. Alfonsin subsequently organised the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons, resulting in the Trial of the Juntas in 1985 when nearly 300 people were prosecuted. Many members of the junta remain in prison for crimes against humanity and genocide.

The Memory Stones focuses on one family’s struggles during this bleak period. Osvaldo, a doctor, has to flee Argentina for Europe after his naive cartoons poking fun at the junta are published in the local newspaper. His daughter, Graciela, goes into hiding after her boyfriend, Jose, disappears. We eventually learn the couple have worked as volunteer literacy teachers in the slums. After Graciela subsequently disappears completely, Osvaldo’s eldest daughter Julieta, who lives with her husband in the United States, remains convinced it is her father’s fault creating a rift between them that takes many years to heal. Osvaldo’s wife, Yolande, has remained in Argentina and together the couple, separated by thousands of miles, undertake fruitless attempts to find their daughter. Through the Catholic Church they eventually find out that Graciela had been pregnant and that their grandchild, if still alive, may have been given to family members of the military to raise. Yolanda dies after finding shards of evidence of a granddaughter, which she gives to a friend in the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo for safekeeping. Osvaldo continues the search into his old age.

Meanwhile, granddaughter, Ana, grows up oblivious of the truth of her background and biological parents, until she is contacted by a court judge asking her to take a blood test to establish her real identity.

Members felt the only flaw in the book was that the author spends too much time on Ana's interest in uncovering the past through archaeology towards the end of the book, which slowed the pace. Here are comments about the book:

Kirsty: “I really loved The Memory Stones even though it was a tough subject to read about. It is beautifully written and so powerfully evoked the emotions of fear, desperation and loss in Osvaldo and Yolande, as they tried to find out what happened to their daughter, Graciela. I really felt their sense of vulnerability and helplessness as well as the strength of their love for each other.”

Rhonda: “I was enthralled reading the novel after having twice visited Buenos Aires and having witnessed the Grandmothers in Plaza de Mayo. Until I read this book, it had not truly sunk in what a terrible, terrible time this was in Argentinian history … The novel was well written except for the last 100 pages where I felt the author got a bit lost in her effort to wrap it up.”

Muriel: “I enjoyed the book because it involved contemporary history. I was interested in the rightwing military junta which overthrew the presidency of Isabel Peron. I was aware of many Argentinians who fled to other countries (like Osvaldo) when I arrived in Melbourne in 1978.”

Who is Caroline Brothers?

Caroline Brothers is an Australian author who was born in Hobart but grew up in Melbourne where she completed her undergraduate studies.

She has a PhD in history from University College London and has worked at Reuters as a foreign correspondent in Europe and Latin America, and as a journalist at the International New York Times. She lived in Mexico in the late 1990s and now spends her time between London and Paris.

She is the author of War and Photography, which grew out of her history PhD at UCL and examines how modern war photography was influenced by photojournalists during the Spanish Civil War.

Her first novel, Hinterland, was published in 2011 and is about two Afghan boys walking across Europe. It won a Society of Authors award and was adapted for theatre as Flight in early 2018.

The Memory Stones was her second novel, published in 2016 and informed by interviews and historical research undertaken from 2012 onwards. ‘The Memory Stones’ are a recurring motif in the book. In the author’s words they have several meanings including the idea of a headstone, a marker for those who have passed away which is denied to those whose loved ones have simply disappeared.

In an Endnote to the book the author states that between March 1976 and December 1983, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo estimate that about 500 children were born to ‘dissidents’ and systematically appropriated by members of the security forces and friends of the Junta. Most were subjected to false adoptions and brought up with falsified identities. About 400 remain missing.

Brothers points out that the incidence of child theft has a long and dark history and over the past century it has recurred for political, ideological, racial, religious and criminal reasons around the world. The Nazi theft during World War II of about 300,000 ‘racially valuable’ children is perhaps the most notorious example, but not the only one. The author states that Australia, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland and the United States are all countries that have had eras of child theft.