Patria: Lost Countries of South America
An adventurous, dazzling and original history that brings South America’s epic past and fascinating present to life
Patria tells an alternative history of South America, spanning thousands of miles and five centuries to the present. Looking beyond modern borders, Laurence Blair takes as his waymarks nine countries that can’t be found on a map: vanished realms, half-imagined utopias and dismembered homelands.
Blair’s journey ranges from ancient Amazonian city-states and a rebel Inca dynasty in the jungle – via a Brazilian Wakanda that defied slavery, Bolivia’s landlocked navy, and the Patagonian power that defeated the Spanish – to fall in with the African freedom fighters who marched over the Andes, and the New World Napoleon who led Paraguay to its ruin.
Groundbreaking recent scholarship, striking archaeological discoveries and vivid eyewitness reporting – including encounters with drug lords, Indigenous leaders, refugees and former guerrillas – weave a story of survival, resistance and revolution, restoring South America to the centre of world history.
Review
Extraordinary … [t]his debut turns the familiar story of South America’s origins inside out … There’s something oneiric about South America in Blair’s storytelling; its broiling jungles, smothering cloud forests and desiccated badlands are landscapes on which dreams are built on. … Romantic, adventurous and thrilling, Patria achieves something remarkable. Not only does Blair bring the stink and splendour of these “forgotten nations” to pungent life, but he also forces us to consider how, and why, they came to be lost in the first place. His travels deserve their own TV series. And his book’s import deserves a wide hearing – that to ignore South America’s past is to ignore the planet’s future. -- Alex Diggins ― The TelegraphBlair argues that South America is overlooked by the rest of the world, especially Britain … His alternative history aims to redress this deficit … A vivid and wide-ranging account -- Tom Robbins ― Financial Times Books of the Year, 2024
Energetic and scholarly… Blair is an engaging and knowledgeable guide -- Andreas Campomar ― Critic
A work of scholarship in its own right ... Patria also has a descriptive flair that lifts Blair’s stories off the page. Best of all, it introduces us to the myriad voices within South America that are retelling their own past -- Oliver Balch ― Spectator
Sparkling ... rich and revealing ... Braiding strands of memoir with others of narrative history and journalistic reportage, Patria has a mood that is really quite compelling. For those of you looking for a fresh and immersive read as the nights grow longer, Blair's portrait of this 'lost continent' will make a fine choice indeed. ― Unseen Histories
Past and present cleverly entwine in this erudite, pacy and brilliant book -- Sophy Roberts ― author of THE LOST PIANOS OF SIBERIA
A distinctive and original account of an under-appreciated continent ... Patria is a feat of historical detail. Blair is an excellent guide -- Daniel Rey ― History Today
An ambitious, wide-ranging, and illuminating book focusing on South American peoples, places, cultures and eras long overlooked, repressed or misunderstood. ... a fascinating narrative [of] wit, flair and passion -- Shafik Meghji ― Geographical
Laurence Blair brings you to some of the hardest-to-reach places on the planet with his lively writing and deep reporting in a book that dives into the rarely told, often ugly and always fascinating history of this beautiful and exploited continent. How did South America arrive here and where is it going? Patria is one of the best books yet to try to answer that question. -- Jack Nicas ― Brazil bureau chief, NEW YORK TIMES
This book is a gem: an exuberant history of South America, written with scholarly verve and literary dexterity, and an unputdownable delight from start to finish. -- Jon Lee Anderson ― New Yorker correspondent
About the Author
Laurence Blair (b. 1991, Dorset, UK) is a journalist and writer who covers Latin America for outlets including the BBC, The Economist, the Financial Times, the Guardian, National Geographic, and History Today.
Over nearly a decade's reporting, he has broken stories about archaeological discoveries in the Atacama Desert and coup attempts in Bolivia and Paraguay; rafted down Amazonian rivers with former rebels in Colombia and flown into drug plantations with special forces; trekked over the Andes with Argentine gauchos into Chile, journeyed to remote islands off the coast of Peru, and walked with Venezuelan refugees into the lawless Darien jungle.
He studied Ancient and Modern History at the University of Oxford before moving to South America, where he is currently based out of Asunción, Paraguay. Winner of the Bodley Head/Financial Times Essay Prize for Dreams of the Sea - his tale of a visit to Bolivia's landlocked navy - and the Royal Society of Literature's Giles St Aubyn Award, Lost Countries is his first book.
Podrobnosti
| Autor |
Laurence Blair |
|---|---|
| Vydavatel |
The Bodley Head |
| Jazyk | anglicky |
| Vazba | měkká |
| Počet stran | 448 |
| Formát | 15,4 × 23,4 cm |
| EAN | 9781847924698 |
| Rok vydání | 2024 |
| Edice |
Historie Společnost a společenské vědy |
Autor
Laurence Blair
Podobné knihy
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