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Time Travel Novel Takes Readers To Dark Chapter Of Argentine History

Photo of J.D. Cortese
Courtesy of J.D. Cortese
Durham-based author J.D. Cortese brings the horrors of Argentine past to the present in his new novel.
Cover of the new book by J.D. Cortese, 'The Sound of a Broken Chain'
Credit Courtesy of J.D. Cortese
Cover of the new book by J.D. Cortese, 'The Sound of a Broken Chain.'

From the mid-1970s to early 1980s, tens of thousands of Argentines who were believed to be political dissidents were kidnapped, tortured and killed by military and security forces. Those who were never seen again are called los desaparecidos. 

In his new novel “The Sound of a Broken Chain” (Opportuna Libri/2018), Argentine-born J.D. Cortese takes readers back to this period in the country’s history, which he lived through himself.

In it, the novel’s teenage protagonists become entangled in the political crisis, and as the story develops, a messenger from the future tries to warn of more chaos to come. Host Frank Stasio speaks with writer J.D. Cortese about his book and his own upbringing in Argentina. Cortese hosts a reading at Dog-Eared Books in Raleigh on January 19 at 1 p.m.

Laura Pellicer is a digital reporter with WUNC’s small but intrepid digital news team.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
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