Synopses & Reviews
Set in a Greek village in 1942, and purportedly written from his imagination by a Danish man before he was picked up by the Gestapo and not seen again, here is Ariel Dorfman's haunting and universal parable of individual courage in the face of political oppression.
Widows forms a testament to the disappeared those living under totalitarian regimes the world over, who are taken away for "questioning" and never return.
One by one, the bodies of men wash up on the shore of the river, where they are claimed by the women of the local town as husbands and fathers, even though the faces of the dead men are unrecognizable. A tug-of-war ensues between the local police, who insist that the women couldn't possibly recognize their loved ones, and the women demanding the right to bury their beloveds. As it evolves, the stand-off reveals itself to be a power struggle between love, dignity and honor, and the lesser god of brute force. A lesson in how power really works, and how it can be made to work differently.
Review
"The plot resounds with the moral thunder of classic....The reader, deeply touched, moves as if in a dream of outrage among its tombs of love." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Lyrical and even elegiac
Dorfman gives flesh to a human rights issue of our time." Chicago Tribune
Review
"[A] brilliant, indispensible fable and an exquisite novel of truly unforgettable characters in a dreadful but, alas, all too familiar situation." Tony Kushner
Synopsis
First published in 1983, Widows is one of Dorfman's most popular and lasting books, a classic in the literature of social protest.
About the Author
Born in Buenos Aires in 1942, Ariel Dorfman is a Chilean citizen. A supporter of Salvador Allende, he was forced into exile and has lived in the United States for many years. He is distinguished professor at Duke University and lives in Durham, North Carolina.