A History of Violence
2015 • 288 pages
Ratings1
Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
"Heartbreaking immersion into the lives of people enduring extreme violence in Central America El Salvador and Honduras have had the highest homicide rates in the world over the past ten years. Oscar Martinez, author of The Beast, which was named one of the best books of the year by the Economist and the Financial Times, shares a beautiful and immersive account of life in one of the most violent places on earth. Martinez travels to Nicaraguan fishing towns, southern Mexican brothels where Central American women are trafficked, isolated Guatemalan jungle villages and crime-ridden Salvadoran slums. With his precise and empathetic reporting, he reveals the underbelly of some of the most dangerous places in the world, going undercover to drink with narcos, accompanying police patrols, riding in trafficking boats and hiding out with a gang informer. The result is an unforgettable portrait of a region of fear, helping to explain why migrants have been fleeing the area by the millions"--
Reviews with the most likes.
An excruciating read. Martínez spares no detail in terms of the horrors perpetrated on the bodies and souls of migrants and their loved ones. His writing, as reviewers have said, is reminiscent of war reporting, evoking deep exhaustion that approaches but stays short of cynicism, retaining a sense of urgency but also the fear and grief that so many efforts to stay the endemic violence and corruption have thus far borne less fruit than so many have hoped. Martínez's writing may be among the most important work to lay bare the degree and depth of this system, with the hope that sunlight may present a disinfectant.
