About the Book
In this ambitious blend of travel and reportage, Marcello Di Cintio travels to the world's most disputed edges to meet the people who live alongside the razor wire and answer the question: What does it mean to live against the walls? Di Cintio shares tea with Saharan refugees on the wrong side of Morocco's desert wall. He meets with illegal Punjabi migrants who have circumvented the fencing around the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. He visits fenced-in villages in northeast India, walks Arizona's migrant trails, and travels to Palestinian villages to witness the protests against Israel's security barrier.
From Native American reservations on the US-Mexico border and the 'Great Wall of Montreal' to Cyprus's divided capital and the Peace Lines of Belfast, Di Cintio seeks to understand what these structures say about those who build them and how they influence the cultures that they surround. Some walls define 'us' from 'them' with medieval clarity. Some walls encourage fear or feed hate. Others kill. And every wall inspires its own subversion, whether by the infiltrators who dare to go over, under or around them, or by the artists who transform them
About the Author :
Calgary writer Marcello Di Cintio's book, Harmattan: Wind Across West Africa, won the Henry Kriesel Award for Best First Book. His second book, Poets and Pahlevans: A Journey Into the Heart of Iran, won the Wilfred Eggleston Prize. He has also written for numerous magazines and journals, including The Walrus, EnRoute, Geist, Reader's Digest, Afar, and The Globe and Mail.
Review :
'The 'wall disease', to borrow Di Cintio's phrase, is rampant but hopefully this passionate book will help us to develop an antidote.' Geographical * 'As a colourful, compassionate tour of hot spots where "nations stake territory in bald concrete", this beating of the bounds can't be topped.' Independent 'Solid journalism that takes readers into cheerless, contested places they probably would not wish to see for themselves. An eye-opener.' Kirkus Reviews A beautifully written reportage, part travel, part history, part politics, full of acute observations and analysis. Recognising that, as an outsider weilding a Canadian passport, he is in the enviable position of being able to pass through walls, Di Cintio makes meaningful connections with people on the ground to understand local contexts. The results are personal stories of living with walls, of subverting them and of defeating them, at once gripping, haunting, humorous and inspiring.' Traveller 'What he [Di Cintio] does do, bravely and forcefully, and with impressive commitment, is to bear witness to the suffering of people who live in the shadow of separation barriers.' Guardian 'What's it like having a physically massive, politically symbolic barrier for a neighbour? That's the question posed by this deftly written travelogue, which drops into settlements in Isreal, Northern Ireland, Mexico and more to paint stark portraits of life beside some of the world's most notorious reinforced borders.' Time Out 'Di Cintio's journeys successfully articulate the diminishing, humiliating effect of the walls on those who have no choice but to push against them.' Sunday Telegraph '[an] illuminating, brilliantly composed book.' Financial Times 'Di Cintio is very good - honest, sharp, nuanced and vivid.' New Statesman '[Di Cintio] brings a fair-minded, maple-baked sensitivity to the madness of dividing lines and barbed wire, but the effect is all the more saddening. If someone as uncholeric and sweet-tempered as Di Cintio found more despair than hope, it's not a good sign. Still, he writes well, unpicking some of the world's trouble spots in spare and lucid prose.' Literary Review 'A book that follows its thread, that unpompously accepts the haplessness of being an outsider, and that is justly impatient with comunities that hide behind a wall rather than ask difficult questions.' The Times 'An ambitious investigation of the globalised world's underbelly.' Metro 'A challenging subject, fraught with political risk and one that could easily tempt a writer to platitudes and facile truisms. Instead, Di Cintio disciplined himself to observe and reflect in depth, and to avoid easy conclusions. This is the kind of book that could only come from immersion in real places and among real people and in that regard, given the complex tensions that are spread along the world's walls, it's almost a miracle it ever got written. Di Cintio's prose is eloquent yet humble, occasionally poetic, and deeply-considered. Truly an exceptional work.' Alberta Literary Awards 'Award-winning Canadian travel writer blends history, travel writing and reportage. He writes beautifully.' The Bookseller
