Old Street, £9.99, 262pp £9.49 from the Independent Bookshop: 08430 600 030

Oblivion: A Memoir, By Hector Abad

 

Boyd Tonkin Author Biography

Boyd Tonkin

Boyd Tonkin is Literary Editor at The Independent. An award-winning journalist, he was formerly Social Policy Editor of the New Statesman and has broadcast extensively for BBC arts and current affairs programmes. He has judged the Booker Prize, the Whitbread biography award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in literature.

More articles from this journalist

Friday 04 November 2011

Print
A A A
Latest in Reviews
You Are Awful (But I Like You), By Tim Moore
The Snow Child, By Eowyn Ivey
The Arch-Conjuror of England: John Dee, By Glyn Parry
The Flight, By M R Hall
Autobiography, By Mary Quant
Photography: ONO, By Natasha Caruana
This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You, By Jon McGregor
Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, Translated and edited by Michael Hofmann
New Ways to Kill Your Mother: Writers and Their Families, By Colm Tóibín
Listening to Van Morrison, By Greil Marcus

On 25 August 1987, Dr Hector Abad Gómez of Medellín, Colombia – radical physician, public-health specialist, human-rights activist – was murdered by paramilitary thugs. So one more good man fell to the powers of darkness that engulfed his country.

But memory, love and language have weapons against oblivion. Now a leading Colombian writer, his son Hector Abad delivers a family memoir that deserves classic status.

Abad mixes tender, loving respect with an objectivity that lets him trace the "temptation to martyrdom" that his father may have felt after his daughter Marta's death.

The book (translated by Anne McLean and Rosalind Harvey) not only pays radiant homage to a hero but champions the path of peaceful change he so steadfastly took.

Comments

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
SPONSORED FEATURES

Win an adventure with Subaru XV

Enjoy a three-night family adventure for four to Slaley Hall in Northumberland.

Cisco iPad app Posh Nosh
Prizes & offers Business videos

Delivering network infrastructure for London 2012

Cisco is maximising connectivity for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Subaru XV iPad app Posh Nosh
Prizes & offers Business videos

Free trial of our new iPad app

Get your daily dose of the best of British journalism, sponsored by American Airlines

Subaru XV Cisco Posh Nosh
Prizes & offers Business videos

Amazing restaurant offers

Three glasses of free champagne and a special menu at 46 top London restaurants.

Subaru XV Cisco iPad app
Prizes & offers Business videos

Latest Independent competitions

Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.

Subaru XV Cisco iPad app
Posh Nosh Business videos

Commercial thought leaders

Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.

Subaru XV Cisco iPad app
Posh Nosh Prizes & offers
Career Services

Day In a Page

Can we pull the plug on the plug?

Can we pull the plug on the plug?

Wireless power is beginning to surge its way into homes, businesses and garages
The 10 Best Lecture Series

The 10 Best Lecture Series

From Intelligence Squared - possibly the world's premier debating forum - to the ICA Talks
Still making a big noise: A season of Michael Frayn plays is set to reaffirm the brilliance of his work

Michael Frayn: Still making a big noise

A season of Frayn's plays is set to reaffirm the brilliance of his work
'You could have a job like mine': How successful alumni can inspire pupils

How successful alumni can inspire pupils

Hilary Wilce sees an innovative scheme in action at a London comprehensive
The tuition paradox: You pay more money, you get less choice

The tuition paradox

You pay more money, you get less choice
The rivals: Canberra's political hate story

The rivals: Canberra's political hate story

Six years ago, Kevin Rudd was ousted as Australian PM by former ally Julia Gillard. Is he about to get his revenge?
Menswear finds its swagger to escape role as poor relation of British fashion

Menswear finds its swagger...

... and escapes role as poor relation of British fashion
'There was someone who needed it...' 60 lives, 30 kidneys, all linked in longest donor chain

60 lives, 30 kidneys, all linked in longest donor chain

Organ donation to stranger starts an amazing series of events across 11 US states
The ad that only plays to women: the future of marketing or useless gimmick?

The ad that only plays to women

The future of marketing or useless gimmick?
Sam Wallace: Chelsea's class of 2012 fail to make the grade

Sam Wallace

Chelsea's class of 2012 fail to make the grade
Lewis Moody: My five ways England can bring down the red curtain

Lewis Moody column

My five ways England can bring down the red curtain
Picture preview: Charline von Heyl, Tate Liverpool

Charline von Heyl, Tate Liverpool

Picture preview
Slow progress in Christchurch one year after quake

Christchurch a year on

Residents mark the first anniversary of the earthquake
Niceness rocks! Ballads take centre stage at the Brits

Niceness rocks!

Ballads take centre stage at the Brit Awards
Robert Fisk: 'If only hague and clinton would listen to yusuf islam'

Robert Fisk

'If only Hague and Clinton would listen to Yusuf Islam'