The Memory Stones

by Caroline Brothers

Buenos Aires. 1976. In the heat of summer, the Ferrero family escapes to the lush expanse of Tigre. Osvaldo, a distinguished doctor, and his wife Yolanda, gather with their daughters, sensible Julieta who lives in Miami, and wilful Graciela nineteen, and madly in love with her fiance, Jose. Those days will be the last the family ever spends together.On their return to Buenos Aires, the Argentine military stages a coup. Friends and colleagues disappear overnight, and Osvaldo is forced to flee to Europe. When Jose is abducted, Graciela goes into hiding, then vanishes in turn. Osvaldo can only witness the disintegration of his family from afar, while Yolanda fights on the ground for some trace of their beloved daughter. Soon she realises they may be fighting for an unknown grandchild as well.

Heartbreaking and beautiful, The Memory Stones tells the story of the Disappeared, thousands of Argentinians who fell victim to the violence of the period. Depicting the despair and hope of one family seeking to rebuild itself after unimaginable loss, it is a lyrical, devastating portrait of a country that has come face to face with terror and the long, dark shadow it leaves behind.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Book Club, Historical, Family, Adult Fiction, War

453 pages, Paperback

First published July 14, 2016

About the author

Caroline Brothers was born in Australia. She has a PhD in history from University College London and has worked as a foreign correspondent in Europe and Latin America. She currently lives in Paris where she writes for the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times. She is the author of War and Photography and also writes short stories. Hinterland is her first novel.

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find myself reading about yet another highly charged political situation that occurred in the not too distant past, in another county, another I have to admit that I was not aware of. This time it's a coup in Argentina in 1976 when a military junta takes over the government and during the reign there were more than "30,000 forced disappearances" (Wikipedia) . These disappearances and in most cases killings of resistors were in and of themselves a horrible thing but another extremely sad result was what happened to the babies of the women who were held. A symbol of hope during this time was a group of women, mothers and grandmothers who worked diligently and secretly to find and identity these children. In an endnote the author tells us :

"Between March 1976 and December 1983 , the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo estimate that approximately 500 children were born in clandestine detention centres or taken from their families and appropriated by members of the security forces and friends of the Junta. Most were subject to false adoptions and brought up with falsified identities. At the time of writing, the Grandmothers had recovered 119 of them, some in other countries in Latin America . Roughly 400 remain missing to this day."

This novel depicts the story of what one family endures, representing so many. Osvaldo Ferrero, a physician in Buenos Aires draws some cartoons of the regime to be published along side a friend's editorial. He is discovered and is forced to flee from his family in order to save his life. His wife Yolanda is left behind to search for her daughter who has disappeared and her baby that was born while she was detained. Yolanda becomes one of this group of grandmothers, brave , strong women in the quest for finding their children and grandchildren. The narratives alternate between Osvaldo in the various places of his exile and what Yolanda is doing. Later in the story a third narrative is introduced- Ana, their lost granddaughter. This is a moving, gripping at times, story of this family , a beautiful rendering of the loss and sadness that was experienced by thousands of families. Caroline Brothers has done a wonderful job of bringing this history to life.

I received an ARC of this book from Bloomsbury USA through Netgalley.

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this copy from a Goodreads Giveaway, which has in no way impacted my opinion of this book. Thank you to the author, Caroline Brothers, and the publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing, for this opportunity.

This beautiful historical fiction is primarily set in Buenos Aires during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Ferrero family live a quiet and happy life together, despite the growing political unrest the country is living in fear of. This does not last, however, and escalates to the disappearance of Osvalodo and Yolando's daughter, Graciela, and her husband, Jose. Osvaldo also finds himself fleeing his homeland in fear of his life, and residing in France while is wife continues the search for her lost family, alone.

This beautiful historical fiction details the lives of all those who spent theirs subjected to insane law, political upheaval, distressing living conditions and extreme military control during the Argentinian coup. This is a heart-rending portrait of a period of time so dark in our human history. The one family focused on serve as a example of the thousands of families living in fear and grief, just as they were.

The harrowing tale is brought to life beautifully and evocatively due to the lyrical and lilting quality of Brothers's writing. Her historical actuality is brilliant, but it is the way she brilliantly brought it to life that sung to my heart.

[Susanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Memory Stones is a novel about an Argentinian family in the mid 1970's who endures a national tragedy: a military coup, during which their family gets torn apart. Osvaldo and Yolanda are a married couple with two children, Julieta, (who is married and who flees Argentina to go to Miami with her husband) and Graciela, who gets caught up in what is happening around her and disappears, along with many others in her country. Thereafter, Yolanda and Osvaldo, take different paths to try and find their daughter and are met with constant heartache and struggle along the way.

Ms. Brother's has a way with words; her writing style is beautiful and she has an uncanny ability to describe scenery in an extremely vivid way. All of the characters are also extremely well written and strong.

Unfortunately, halfway through the book, the writing felt sluggish and was very drawn out, which made it much harder to get through. Further, the ending fell flat for me. Simply put, after everything, I wanted more. I felt that the readers deserved more and because of both of those things, I can only give this book 3 stars.

Because this book has yet to be published, I will not say more about it as I would hate to spoil it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bloomsbury USA and Caroline Brothers for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 8/25/16.

Published on Amazon on 10/27/16.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Memory of Stones by Caroline Brothers
In 1976 in Buenos Aires, Argentina the military and Junta tear a family apart. Osvaldo is a husband and father who is married to Yolanda. They have two daughters named Julieta and Graciela. Their daughter Julieta lives with her husband in Miami. Graciela is engaged to Jose. Osvaldo leaves the country and takes refuge in France. People that they know are disappearing. Jose goes missing and his girlfriend Graciela are hiding out with friends.

Policemen in plain clothes seize Graciela and her friends. This historical novel depicts the thousands of people who disappeared during this coup. Yolanda is trying to search for her missing family.

Thank you to Caroline Brothers and the publisher and Net Galley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review.

[Stephanie Anze · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the Ferrero family is enjoying a tranquil and relaxing getaway in Tigre, they do not know this is the last time they all will be together as a family. Osvaldo Ferrero is a doctor and along with his wife, Yolanda and their daughter Graciela, return to Buenos Aires (Julieta, their other daughter now resides in Miami). Shortly after their return, the Military Junta stages a coup and everthing changes. Tough restrictions are imposed on all the citizens but what is worse are the "disapperances", people that simply vanish overnight. Osvaldo is involved in a situation that forces him to flee and Graciela is forced into hiding. Life as they knew it will never be the same.

I am in awe. This novel was everything I wanted and more. Following the Ferrero family, the background of this novel is the 1976 Military Coup in Argentina. What was once a peaceful existance becomes infested with fear and danger. Anyone that put any sort of resistance to the regime was "disppeared". Osvaldo draws some cartoons and is able to get away before they get him but that leaves Yolanda alone to look after Graciela, who had to hide as well. Not knowing whom to trust, Yolanda looks for her daughter only to learn that she has been taken by the regime. Uncertainty now becomes a constant companion. This narrative is touching and heartbreaking. The devastation and brutality brought on by the regime is almost undescribeable. The way in which Brothers rendered the story was raw without being graphic. I was quite taken with this book and thought the ending was more than fitting.

Back in highschool, I learned about Juan Peron and Evita so I had some knowledge about Argentina but not that extensive. The 1976 Military Coup overthrew Peron's second wife Isabel from the presidency and established a ruthless Mlitary Junta (that lead to La Guerra Sucia, The Dirty War). Its estimated that 30,000 individuals were "disappeared", which is code for taken by the regime, tortured and then killed. One of ways the regime disposed of their victims was by drugging them, putting them on planes and dropping them in rivers (mind you, these people were still alive when pushed off the plane). The women that were pregnant at the time of their capture were allowed to live long enough to give birth, their babies given to families and friends of the Junta. That is how the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo came to be. Mothers that wanted their grandchildren to come home. These women are extraordinary, their bravery remarkable. I have nothing but the upmost respect for them. Brothers managed to blend historical data with a gripping narrative. A must read.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew! I'm not sure I'm even able to articulate how powerful the reading experience for this novel was for me. All I know is that I was unable to move from the couch for the last 2 1/2 hours. Caroline Brothers takes readers back to 1970's Argentina and relates the heartache of the mysterious disappearances of many of its citizens during a military coup. In The Memory Stones, it is Osvaldo and Yolanda's 20 year-old daughter and her fiancee that go missing.The further news that their daughter was pregnant, causes more sleepless nights for Osvaldo and Yolanda. True to history, CB takes her characters through several decades where information is scarce and questions are left unanswered. The Memory Stones is a truly heartbreaking story of loss. My tear ducts might not ever recover.

How does a country ever cope with a missing generation, when nobody wants to talk about it? My own nation of Canada continues to struggle with that very question, as do many other countries around the world. What I felt was executed so brilliantly in CB'S writing was how an event can devastate a family and a nation for decades/centuries to come. We see this in Osvaldo 's relationship with his older daughter and also between Ana and her parents. It even has a hold on Osvaldo 's two other grandchildren.

It's simply a powerhouse of a book and I hope it makes its way onto the shelves and into other people's hearts.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Calzean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty good at the start, meandered for too long in the middle and then hit it's straps in the last parts.
The book tells the story of the military Junta in Argentina and the Dirty War of state terrorism starting in the mid-70s. It features one family who loses their daughter as one of The Disappeared, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the story of the 500 or so children taken from their parents or born to prisoners and then appropriated to military/police/government officers.
There is plenty of suspense in the early parts, lots of guilt and grief and a slow recognition of the torture, murders and the dispatch of unwanted prisoners via dropping from a helicopter.
The last parts cover the impact on Ana, one of the children appropriated, and grappling between the people who raised her, her understanding on what happened in the Argentina and whether she wants to know who was her blood family.
The use of Ana's interest in archaeology lead to a nice segue into what happened in Greek history and the deaths of Alexander the Great's family; the comparison of the actions of those then in power in Greece and those in Argentina reveals that mankind still is pretty animalistic when it can get away with it.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

In the beginning I really liked this book. I was unfamiliar with Argentinas history in the 70s & 80s and I was very interested in reading a novel with that as the historical background. But when the book reaches the 90s it becomes very long winded. It's almost like the author had 2 ideas for a book but couldn't start or finish them so she merged them and it just seemed like some of the story didn't need to be told or even make sense in the context of the overall story. That was disappointing because the author is a beautiful writer and I would actually read another book by her but I probably wouldn't pick this book up and read it a second time.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly really enjoyed it. I love learning about history that was skipped at school, like the South American one. It was a very detailed story that included a lot of characters as well as their way of copping and surviving in a dictatorship.

[dianne b. · Rating 3 out of 5]

26 years ago when my oldest child was almost 9, i scheduled our Argentina travels so that we would be in front of the Casa Rosada wearing “nappies” on our heads, and marching with the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Disappeared. The 4 year old was up for anything without a lot of questions, and the 9 year old - an old soul - by then knew the history (without the goriest bits) and was there to fully lend her support to the Abuelos y Madres who gathered there - and still do - every Thursday afternoon. This to say the stories, the horrible holocaust stories, of the well over 30,000 people tortured to death, using techniques taught to them by the CIA - are not new.

So when this book, which i was looking forward to reading, read like a case from one of the Abuelos...so exactly, i wondered why i was reading it, another heartbreaking hopeless loss. Unimaginable cruelty.

Then about p.170 (finally) something different, slightly da vinci code-ish happens. Well, the symbol is da vinci-ish.

Being the opinionated (note: but always correct (<: ) person i am, i have never been challenged to attempt to summon up any sympathy for the creeps., er, perps, er, other side, as some bits of this story sort of does. Not to worry. Bad is bad, evil is evil and truth outs.

A theme is the destruction of beauty. The destruction of youth and beauty. Art you’ve created and love. An animal you adore. And of course there’s the 35,000 mostly college aged disappeared.

Ana is really Liliana, the granddaughter of Oswaldo, whose daughter and son-in-law were “disappeared”. As soon as Liliana was born, her parents were disposed of. We learn how in one case. She is one of an estimated 400-500 children stolen and placed with families high up in the Argentine military. To date 125 of these (thanks to the Grandmothers) have learned their real history.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/new...

But of course Ana is a child trying to please her "Papa and Mami", finding them mysterious, believing what they say, that is was a war and what happened needed to happen. But she rarely feels OF them.

Ana’s “mother” loves roses.
“Ana glances at the angry leaves, at the anorexic branches malevolent with thorns. She is mystified by what her mother sees in roses….the stems themselves are treacherous, the plants as ugly as skeletons for most of the year.
Her mama catches the look in Ana’s eye and laughs…”

But she strongly resists the rumor she hears when she is much older that her father could have done anything like that.
And who knows how many of the 300-350 children still living with the people who (in some cases directly) murdered their biological parents, actually in their heads & hearts know, but don’t want to change the architecture of their comfortable lives? Don’t want to upset their “good” parents?

It has to be every parent’s worst nightmare to die before your children. But to live as these parents and grandparents have now for over 40 years without knowing where, when, what - which is how Oswaldo was living, or trying to... Well, it was either her best writing or the part that i found most terrifying poignant, too easy to relate to. This was within an intense soliloquy that began when he examined his old, doctor’s, hands:

“And I find that I am weeping, my tears mixed with the steam and the fog on the window. Irretrievably, inconsolable as a child. Over the glasses, over my failure as her father. Over all that was beautiful in her. Over her abbreviated life.”

Ms. Brothers could have benefited from tighter editing. Bits, usually descriptions, tried too hard and felt as though she had thought them up some time, (perhaps at a Christmas party? See below) jotted them down, saving them for her next novel:

“...worn wicker chairs slump like old ladies stockings at a Christmas party, spirals of cane pooling around their ankles like stockings.”
Cute, clever even, but so out of place in a seaside villa, it leads one to think, 'been holding that long?'

A good book for someone who wants an introduction to Argentina’s Dirty War.

[Jacki (Julia Flyte) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1976, a right wing coup overthrew the President of Argentina and installed a military dictatorship. Over the next 7.5 years, around 20,000-30,000 Argentines, primarily young people, were arrested and never heard from again. Many were killed in death flights - drugged and then dropped from a plane to their deaths. In neighbouring Uruguay, locals were disturbed when bodies started washing up on their beaches, with every bone in their body broken. It is estimated that approximately 500 women were pregnant when arrested, and the babies that they gave birth to were given to military or other favoured families to raise as their own. Those children would grow up not knowing that they had been adopted, let alone what had happened to their birth parents.

Against these real events, Caroline Brothers has constructed the story of a family who are broken apart by the change in Government. Osvaldo is a doctor who lives with his wife Yolanda and younger daughter Graciela in Buenos Aires. As the military start rounding up people who are critical of their regime, Osvaldo has to flee the country and Graciela goes into hiding. Three months later Yolanda finds out that Graciela has been arrested, and shortly afterwards she learns that Graciela was also pregnant. Over the ensuing years, Yolanda and Osvaldo will desperately hunt for their missing daughter and grandchild, not knowing if they are alive or dead.

I tore through the book. It's such a moving story, and knowing that it happened to so many people is heartbreaking. However I wish the story had been told slightly differently. I would have liked more background about the events that were happening. The author seemed to assume more knowledge about Argentina's history than I had. I was less interested in following the story of a child growing up in an adopted home. The final section of the book was the least interesting to me and most protracted, and the conclusion felt too abrupt. Nevertheless, this was a haunting story that will stay with me.

[Tonstant Weader · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Memory Stones tells the story of a family fractured by the Junta in Argentina’s Dirty War. I knew someone who was a reporter, who worked who Jacobo Timerman and had terrifying stories of the war to share. Those stories were what drew me to Caroline Brothers’ novel that begins with the coup and continues forward to the end of the century.

In the Dirty War, some 8,000 people disappeared in Argentina, many of them young, college-students. During that time, some 500 children were born to those prisoners without names in cells without numbers (to borrow from Jacobo Timerman, the most famous of those prisoners). Those children were taken, adopted my people in the military of sent to other countries. They disappeared and only now, with DNA testing, are people finding these lost children of the war, reuniting them with their grandparents usually, since most of their parents were murdered by the Junta.

This is the story of Osvaldo, who drew the ire of the junta by sketching a cartoon caricature that a friend published in his paper. It was early days and they had no idea that this coup would become a killing machine. He fled into exile, but his wife stayed behind. Their daughter was missing and they assumed it would settle down. It never did and his daughter was never found.

The story is so much about Yolanda, his wife, and her determination to search and find Graciela, their daughter. It is about his struggle for information from outside Argentina, the helplessness of being in exile, the loss and separation from his wife and daughter. It’s also about the reality that the fixed anxiety over the missing daughter makes the safe and sound and living in Miami daughter feel like chopped liver.

Yolanda learns that Graciela was pregnant and her approximate due date. Clues and small snippets of information are collected. Life goes on, tragic, hopeful, quotidian, dramatic, just life. This novel, of grandparents seeking their granddaughter, hoping for truth about their daughter, for looking to build a new life after such a massive fracture, is fascinating, intriguing and sometimes heartbreaking.

I cried far too much through The Memory Stones. I cried when Yolanda sees a girl playing in a school yard and thinks it is possible she is her granddaughter, though mostly through intuition and hope, not based on evidence. I cried when Brothers devoted a short chapter to the letter Yolanda wrote to her parents, following it as it fell on the floor, was thrown outside, blew about in the wind, was rained on, run over and disappeared in running ink and pulp. I actually thought to myself, “You are crying over a piece of paper.” Yes, I really did cry over a piece of paper. Paper that represented an at-the-buzzer shot toward the basket of hope. And that is the miracle of The Memory Stones, that despite all the reasons for despair, hope kept pushing it way to the surface, flourishing, fed by memory and love.

The writing in The Memory Stones is beautiful with rich imagery and wonderful meandering interstices like the story of the letter. It is written by someone who loves life, beauty, and the promises of love and family. There is no prurient attention to the gruesome and the hateful. While there are stories told from the prisons and by people who were held by the Junta and tortured, they are told out of a need for truth, not out of fascination. This is a heartbreaking story, over and over and over again, but like the best of stories, there are moments of grace, joy and hope that more than compensate for the sorrow.

I received an e-galley of The Memory Stones from the publisher through NetGalley.

http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpres...

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d had this book on my shelf for far too long before I picked it up to read it and now after reading it, I’m wondering why! Set in Buenos Aires, in the late ‘70s it tells the story of the Ferrero family after one of their daughters is taken by the military and the Junta. Such a sad story in places, but such an element of hope too.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had heard of the Disappeared of Argentina, of course, but this book brought them to life, completely made them and the tragedy of Argentina real for me. I stayed up way too late, reading until I could no longer keep my eyes open, and finished this book in two nights. I just could not stop - even knowing the turn of the page would bring only more sorrow. At times, though, there were also glimmers of hope. A compelling, devastating look at the family of one girl who is taken, and her family's decades long search for her, for answers, for the truth, for. . . . anything. An excellent work of historical fiction, it made me want to know more. Easily one of the Top 10 books I've read this year, probably Top 5. Highly, highly recommend. Strong 4.5 stars. Many thanks to Bloomsbury USA and Netgalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this stunning novel. I will be thinking about this one for quite some time.

[Tena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely book that would've benefited from some heavy handed editing. The part of the story sets in late 1980s-early 1990s feels like a separate book and takes away from the powerful storytelling in the first part. Still, if you like historical fiction and want to learn more about Argentina's guerra sucia, this is worth a read.

[Rachel England-Brassy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well I finished the last two thirds of the book early this morning, as twice I put it down to sleep but found myself turning back to it.
I’ve read Ms Brothers’ first book Hinterland and found that up be an urgent rally cry and this second book suffers from none of the cliches of being such.
This is an important tale, urgently yet gently told. It’s not gratuitous in its horror nor restrained in its emotions. May times I found myself nodding along in agreement with the protagonists and crying in sympathy.
I’ve wanted to read this for a while and it didn’t disappoint. Read it, you won’t regret it.
Highly recommended.

[Angela Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book through a reading subscription. It would not have come to my attention otherwise but I really enjoyed it.

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a tough read at times and was about a period of history I didn't know anything about. It is a story about the people that disappeared in Argentina in the 1970s. It must have been terrible for the families to never find out what happened to their loved ones.

Despite it being a tough read I thought that the author managed the topic really well. The fall out of the events will be felt for a long time and I think this book has given me a lot to think about.

I would recommend it.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is haunting me. The kind of story that stays with you for a long time with never-ending questions, the most important being "how could I be alive and not have known this was happening?"
I was not instantly drawn in. I found the use of the present tense a little confusing and disjointed. But that feeling did not last for long. Very quickly I was completely enthralled and could not put the book down. I would have liked the ending to be a bit longer with some leads as to what happened next. It certainly left me wanting to know more!

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book moved me so much because it shows once again how a family can be ripped apart due to the political situation they find themselves in. Set in 1976 in Argentina this family who are living happily face challenges and changes m. A great read.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

(I received a copy through a Goodreads giveaway)

SO GOOD!!!

There are enough reviews that rehash the plot and that examine the story arc and its strengths and weakness. I will just say that I adore this book about loss and love and deceit and redemption.

[Rrshively · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never give five stars to books that deal with torture, but this one is too excellent for anything less. The torture is not dwelt upon, but the reader is informed. The author is poetic in her descriptions and tells the story to perfection. It's 1976 and a new repressive junta has seized power in Argentina. Osvaldo takes his family on a summer retreat to the tigre area, and that is the last time they are ever together. Osvaldo becomes a target of the junta and must flee the country. His youngest daughter, Graciela, and fiancé disappear without a trace, leaving his wife, Yolanda, to try to discover what happened to them. Eventually, through clandestine methods, they learn that Graciela had a surviving baby in prison. Their decades long search for this granddaughter and the story of her life are the meat of this novel. Argentina between 1976 and 1983 was the place of the "disappeareds", people captured and never heard from again. Rumors about torture and death abounded. A group of grandmothers, the abuelas, walk to see if they can get some clues. They carry open handbags into which scraps of clues are dropped. Can a clue from them help Yolanda and Osvaldo find their granddaughter? I am sorry I had the book on my to-read list for seven years before I was ready to deal with the cruelty of the time.
This is a cautionary tale about a country taken over by a cruel and repressive dictatorship. Could anything like this happen in the U.S.? Ordinary people seemed helpless in stopping it. It is scary to think that one of the first books banned by the junta was The Little Prince.
If you are up for learning more about the cruelty of the time through fiction, I highly recommend Imagining Argentina.

[Jacqui Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartbreaking and compelling. The Memory Stones describes both the best and the very worst of humankind. This was a period of time that I have lived through but I knew very little about the atrocities that took place in Argentina in the seventies. The anguish of the Ferrero family is well captured but there also runs a vein of hope and the extraordinary strength of family ties. I savoured this book but ended up galloping through the final quarter today as I was so intrigued to find out how the story of Ana, the lost grandaughter, would end up.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I had to describe this book in one word it would be sad. It is the story of a family who during the military coup of Argentina had one of their daughters disappeared. They find out by accident that she was pregnant, and get some titbits of information that indicate there was a child. The father is forced to flee but the mother remains in Argentina hoping for word of the daughter and granddaughter. The she too dies. The father remains exiled overseas, finds a job and new partner but all the time the undercurrent of the book is just sadness.

[Belinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The philosophy of this book was obviously why describe something in one page when you can do it in 15 pages. Just dragging it out so a third longer than it should have been. It had a few great passages but swamped by long, drawn out writing.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a harrowing read about a piece of history I knew little about. I highly recommend this book. I read it very quickly and I did a lot of googling about the background. It was a compelling read.

[Tali · Rating 4 out of 5]

gorgeously written and touching with such an interesting story and subject matter, loved this!

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marcus Garvey said "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin or culture is like a tree without roots". In a globalised world we must be aware of all countries' pasts and aim not to repeat inhumane, discriminating and power hungry actions. The consequences of any atrocity touch not only the victims, but future generations also, in painful and damaging ways.
The Memory Stones is a well told story which educated me about a part of modern history I was unaware of. The longing, heartfelt pain and emptiness rise out of Caroline Brothers prose.

[Rachel Bloom · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had all the potential components of a great novel and I was excited to read a story set in Argentina at this time as it's a political period that I had little knowledge of, but I finished the book feeling frustrated and disappointed.

Firstly, for what should have been such an emotionally evocative subject matter, I felt it was really lacking in genuine poignant moments.

I agree with another reviewer that it seriously needed some copy editing. The story was so slow in places, nevertheless I was prepared to put up with that for the sake of the emotional reunion that had been built up over the 20 years of story telling...

I can't believe how this book ended. The author spent SO long building up to the moment when Liliana was finally reunited with her family. I couldn't wait to find out how Liliana felt, how she coped with her parents, how she took to her new family, what happened when she met her cousins, how Osvaldo felt, what was their relationship like etc..etc.. but we got nothing, not even a tiny hint of this. These are the explorations I craved the whole way through and the abrupt ending (if you can call it that) made the whole thing seem like a huge waste of time.

Overall, very disappointed!

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Try this if you are interested in learning about Argentina and a period of its history that did has not received as much attention as it should. Brothers has done a good job of bringing the issues of the disappeared to life. This is a complicated story that sometimes wrenches at the heart. My only quibble is that it would have benefited from a strong editor to tighten up and liven the second half, which as noted by others, did drag a bit. My bottom line, though, is a thumbs up, especially for those who like historical fiction. THanks to Netgalley for the ARC.