A FLOWER TRAVELED IN MY BLOOD by Jorge Rafael Videla in 1976 forever reset the country’s history. Under Videla’s direction, a violent military junta kidnapped, tortured, and murdered thousands of Argentines (by some estimates as many as 30,000 who were deemed “subversives”). Centering the saga of the Roisinblits and their matriarch Rosa, journalist Gilliland, in her first book, approaches this brutal period through the eyes of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, a scrappy, courageous group of mothers of desaparecidos who had infants or were pregnant when they were disappeared. Over decades of instability that followed the junta’s rule, the Abuelas were at the forefront of calls for accountability and justice, anchoring their grief in the search for grandchildren who had been born in detention centers and adopted—appropriated—by new families, often with connections to Videla’s government. The author conveys the complicated, heart\u002Dwrenching fullness of her characters’ individual stories and shades their backdrop with compulsively readable history of geopolitical tension and the emerging DNA science that fueled the Abuelas’ fight. Gilliland’s work, exhaustively and compassionately researched, offers a crucial counterbalance to the dark legacy of Argentina’s desaparecidos, injecting the light of a model resistance movement that lay the groundwork for future international human rights investigations. Her humility and respect for the fraught journeys her subjects made toward each other and for the vital questions their journeys raised—about power, identity, family, and collective memory and healing—ensure the text will resonate for generations the world over." - Review & Purchase Guide | BookBookOwl

Name: A FLOWER TRAVELED IN MY BLOOD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.52 (602 reviews)
ISBN: 9781668017

Our Review

This powerful poetry collection explores the complex journey of identity, heritage, and self-discovery through vivid, lyrical verse that speaks directly to the teenage experience. The poems navigate themes of cultural roots, personal transformation, and the emotional landscape of growing up, using rich imagery that will resonate with young adult readers. These are not simple rhymes but sophisticated pieces that tackle the raw, real questions of belonging and becoming.

What makes this work stand out is its unflinching honesty and the way it gives voice to the often-unspoken struggles of adolescence. Teen readers searching for validation of their own complex feelings will find a mirror in these pages, while the artistic merit provides a gateway to appreciating contemporary poetry. This is the kind of collection that doesn't just get read—it gets felt, remembered, and revisited.

A FLOWER TRAVELED IN MY BLOOD

Book Details

Reading Info

About This Book

Our Review