La Guerra Sucia

by Nathaniel Kirby (Editor)

American journalist and single mother, Leslie Corrales, travels to Argentina to investigate the suspicious disappearance of Raúl, the son of Magdalena Casasnovas. When Leslie discovers that Raúl, along with tens of thousands of other suspected dissidents, has suffered horrific atrocities at the hands of the Argentine government, she finds herself in a life-altering series of events. Will she escape with her life and with the information she needs to help the Argentine people?

Genres: Spanish Literature, Historical Fiction, School

124 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[AmyQuijada · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mí me gusto este libro porque era muy interesante. Yo queria leer más cada vez que lo recojé. El final del libro se me iso bien triste pero tambien era un relidad en esos tiempos. ¡Sí lo recomendariá!

[PAIGE ✮ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read this for Spanish class and it was honestly good

[Keira Mueller · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a Spanish class novel, this was actually really good. The writing was better than most of the other books we've read, and it brought an extremely important historical issue into context. Also, the ending was absolutely devastating.

[Lia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very boring book until basically the last two chapters!!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy emocionada de poder leer esta novela con mis clases y hablar de la Guerra Sucia de Argentina de los años 70/80.

Le quite una estrella por el hecho de que presenta a los EEUU como un país perfecto en comparación con el país de Argentina aunque nosotros también tenemos momentos muy oscuros en nuestra historia con el tratamiento de diferentes grupos marginalizados.

[emma.bookss]

read for my spanish class :)

[Lemoona · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, so sad. It’s crazy how much I don’t know about world history, and learning about things like this makes me feel ignorant and useless. I’m sure there are many more like Luisa who disappeared and were never found again just for investigating the Argentinian government, but since I didn’t know this prior to taking my Spanish class it’s clearly not the most common knowledge. I really wish more people knew about these tragedies in our history.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

NOT FOR ENGLISH READERS.

This book was amazing. I couldn't recommend a better high intermediate level Spanish book. This is a mystery book mixed with historical fiction. It is about a mother who is a newspaper writer for a company in New York who has to uncover the mysteries about La Guerra Sucia.

[Devany De La Torre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro era un libro chido! Empezó con una historia fantástica y emocionante y no podía esperar a leer lo que iba pasar siguiente. Lo única cosa es que no me gusto como termino la historia, yo espero un final feliz pero no pasó eso y todavía pienso de lo que le podía aver pasado a la señora.

[Alexa Lamberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me gustaba este libro. La historia de Argentina era interesante y muy triste. Pero, no me gustaba que terminó con una situación de suspenso. Quiero saber que paso entre todos los personajes.

[Cordelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es mi libro favorito que yo he leí para la clase de español.

[Michaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

The spanish was easy to read but I found Leslie somewhat unbelievable as a journalist and, at times, as a functioning adult

[Karime Serrano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odié el final del libro. Yo esperaba más porque me gusto la historia pero eso no fue el caso. Le daría las cinco estrellas pero el final me echó.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

the ending kinda pissed me off but i guess i understand why the author did that.

if i read this book in english, i would’ve dropped it a long time ago but it was beneficial to practice my spanish.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This book was interesting enough for me and I am glad I read it. However, I do not think I will be reading it with my class again. There was too much expositon. Too much background and history. Not enough action or story. For the plot that was there, it probably should have been a shorter book. I provided a lot of necessary historical background before we read the book, so when students came across that in the book they were primed; but, on the other hand, it felt daunting to them because it was a wall of text.

Last year we read Vida o muerte en La Mara Salvatrucha and it was FAR more engaging of a story. Hopefully I can find another one just as engaging for next year, but I doubt I'll read this again.

[Bella · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a pretty stupid book. Horribly bland and incomplete plot and a dumb and unsatisfying ending. Not a fun time

[Peniox · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this for spanish too, no me gusta. muy abburido

[Parker Wood · Rating 1 out of 5]

No.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hay un periodista Americana y madre sin novio: Leslie. Cuando el libro empieza, el jefe de Leslie le da un oportunidad a visitar Argentina e investigar sobre una serie de misteriosas desapariciones de gente en la Argentina y parecen ser culpa del gobierno. Porque este libro tiene lugar en Argentina en los 1970s, es dura La Guerra Sucia y el gobierno está asesinando a todos los que estén en contra. Pero, el problema es que Leslie está en contra al gobierno Argentina también, y ella es secuestrada. Al final del libro, los dos hijos de Leslie descubren que Leslie está desaparecida y no van a verla otra vez. El final del libro no tiene closure, y describe la guerra sucia. Es similar a lo que las familias de los desconocidos experimentaron: no saben si sus miembros de familia estaban viviendo y muerte, solo tienen información de la guerra en general.
En este libro, hay una conexión entre los desafíos mundiales, específicamente: la guerra y los problemas políticos. La guerra sucia que el libro trata, fue un evento real en Argentina. La guerra empezó cuando un golpe militar instauró la dictadura del general Jorge Rafael Videla, y esta dictadura trajo represión e intolerancia político a las personas de Argentina. Casi 30 mil personas desaparecieron.
Esta guerra y este libro tiene una conexión con Corea del Norte. Corea del Norte es un país que tiene una dictadura hoy en día, y es como un “black box” al resto del mundo, entonces hay muchos periodistas investigadores que quieren investigarlo. Pero, Corea del Norte es similar a Argentina durante los 70s porque hace “desaparecido” a todos los que estén en contra.
No te recomendaría este libro para leer en tu pasatiempo porque el final no es satisfactorio. Te inviertes en la personaje Leslie, y al final del libro, no sabes qué le pasó. Entonces es un poquito frustrante.
Pero, si quieres usar este libro para aprender sobre dictadores y la guerra sucia, si te recomendaría este libro. Creo que explica bien la guerra sucia en Argentina, y al empieza del libro tiene mucha contexta histórica.
Es una buena herramienta para aprender, pero no creo que el libro sea una lectura divertida.

[Lynsie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not really a fan of sad endings, especially in fiction (obviously it's different for memoirs/biographies). I was at first mad about this ending. It was a complete drop off with no resolution at all. However! After reading the author's note I understood. Basically, Leslie is investigating disappearances in Argentina that are the fault of the government, who seized power and kidnaps and tortures/kills anyone who may be against them. In the end, Leslie is kidnapped as well for her investigations. The book ends with Leslie's sons finding out that investigators couldn't find their mom, and them realizing that they would probably never see her again. The epilogue after this is a summary of the rest of the war, not anything about Leslie. This ending annoyed me until I read the author's note, which explains that the reason for the abrupt ending was to emulate the experience that many families had because of the Dirty War. Many families had people "disappear" (sons, daughters, husbands, etc.), and they would never hear from them again or receive any closure. They didn't even know if they were dead or alive. That's the ending the reader is left with in this book, and I think this touch of symbolism is great. This alone gave the book more meaning to me. I give the book only two stars because it really is just a book for learning Spanish so the plot was subpar. Pretty boring until about chapter 10 (out of 12), and I didn't really feel any strong emotions at any point reading the first ten chapters.

[mystery · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very generous one star

This is a very boring book with very boring characters. The story is not compelling, and even though it's only 12 chapters long, it's extremely hard to get through. The story line is soooo slow and more than half of the book is just background information. The main character, Leslie, is just idiotic. This shouldn't even be considered historical fiction because it contains no accurate historical information.

The Spanish is very basic and not helpful for learning new vocabulary because the author uses the same few phrases over and over. If I ever hear "respiró profundamente" again, I might lose my mind.

The plot is so boring. Nothing even happens until the last page and then it ends with a very poorly written "cliffhanger" that isn't really a cliffhanger because no one actually cares.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just didn’t love this book. There were so many missed connections. What was the purpose of her personal storyline? Why on earth did the author need to state that the USA is so much better than Argentina multiple times? Not only was it rude but it’s untrue; there are unique and beautiful things about all countries and there are negatives about every country. The writing was subpar. (Comprehensible doesn’t have to equate subpar writing.) The positives were that the idea of the story was interesting and the history of the war was interesting for my students. It was an okay piece to use in a unit about the Dirty War.

[Sapphire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written with the intention of helping Spanish learners to improve their reading and vocabulary, and it did just that for me. Although it is fictional it is based off of events that have happened in Argentina and I found it quite insightful. This book was just far enough outside of my comfort zone that I would definitely say that I got a lot out of reading it. I will say that I struggled for the first bit, but after putting it down for a while, I came back and found it much easier and enjoyable to read. I don't feel that I could properly rate it as a work of fiction, as my Spanish is not that great and I have only read beginners books, but as an educational tool, amazing.

[Jasmine Lake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in Spanish 4 this year during the unit about el Cono Sur (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay). I think this book was a great way to learn about the disappearances in Argentina. I also liked the dialogue included in the novel. I think it's important because the reader can view how Magdalena feels while trying to find clues about her sons experience and how Leslie is impacted during the investigation. The story was very compelling. The author did a great job with the ending as well.

[Dianna Karwoski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very thrilling as it followed the journey of a good-natured reporter who only wanted to expose the truth of suspicious disappearances yet gets put in fatal danger at the government's hands. The build-up of the inhumane corruption keeps you turning the page. I read this for my Spanish class, but I would recommend it for leisure purposes as well.

[Randall Marx · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s great that someone decided to write books in Spanish for people who are learning Spanish. There’s an extensive vocabulary list, but the book can be read quickly by those at an intermediate level. While the plot is simplified, it is much more compelling than reading children’s books in Spanish

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Spanish 3-4 class read this for our spring semester book. We’d already read about the Dirty War through a unit last fall. Students complained the main character was not smart going to dangerous places, and being so naive. As teenagers, they just didn’t connect with the main character - a single mom of teenage boys. Glad we read it, but we’ll put a different book into rotation next time!

[Ellie Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for my Spanish 3 class in high school. Great book for those learning Spanish, and an insight into Argentina's history through an easy to follow story of a mother and reporter.

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it was interesting to read about the Dirty War. I didn't like Leslie's character though. She was terribly naive and somewhat idiotic.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Planning to use this one wth my Spanish 4/5 class (alternating w/ La Hija Del Sastre)