Naming the spirits

the long version

In Naming the Spirits, Lawrence Thornton returns to Argentina as the Dirty War is ending to tell the story of a teenage girl who miraculously survives a night in a killing field. When she awakens after an extensive, tormented sleep, she sets out upon a complex and emotional journey. Drifting across the pampas as if guided by benevolent spirits, she arrives in Buenos Aires, at the home of the Cristianis. Disheveled and bearing the scar of a bullet wound on her forehead, she can only utter the words "I am." The Cristianis - whose only daughter disappeared during Argentina's Dirty War - immediately take her in, setting into motion a searing tale of loss and redemption.