This Never Happened

“We’ve had visitors. They just left. You’d best take a walk.”

Francisco Amaro Villafuerte—Pancho to his friends—a journalist and union rep for a large publishing group in Buenos Aires, is also the author of a soon to be published novel. A left-wing liberal, he’s aware of the surrounding dangers, but assumes he won’t be a target. But when he receives an ominous voice message from his boss, and then witnesses the entire printing of his book literally go up in flames, he realizes he’s wrong.

As he begins to receive death threats, he must confront the fact that his only option is to leave the country, his wife and family; but how can he do that when he lacks the means, the money, a passport, everything necessary?

Only one person can help him: someone to whose values and ideas he is diametrically opposed, someone the dictatorship naturally respects. Over the next few days, Pancho is at his mercy, trapped in terror and uncertainty in a city where everything is a threat.

Based on real events that occurred shortly after the military coup of March 24th, 1976 that furthered the Dirty Wars in Argentina—lasting over seven years and causing the disappearances and deaths of over 30,000 victims—This Never Happened is the chilling narrative of a man caught in an extreme situation: one that separates life and freedom from torture and death. With incisive and restrained prose, Mempo Giardinelli has written an unforgettable novel about the hope and anguish of those persecuted in violent times.

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Author website

Book Topics

Argentina

Military Coup

The Dirty War

Dictatorship

Fascism

30000 people murdered or disappeared

Buenos Aires

Censorship

Autobiographical novel