Walls: Travels Along the Barricade - Hardcover

Di Cintio, Marcello

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1908526335 ISBN 13: 9781908526335

Publisher: Union Books, 2013

Synopsis

The world's walls are supposed to be coming down. We speak of globalization, international markets and global villages; barriers to trade keep falling, and it is now possible to communicate instantly from nearly anywhere in the world. But just as these virtual walls come down, real walls rise. In this evocative blend of travel writing, history and politics, Marcello Di Cintio visits the world's most disputed edges to meet those who live alongside the razor wire, concrete and steel. Along the way he shares tea with refugees on the wrong side of Morocco's desert wall; he encounters illegal immigrants circumventing high-tech fencing around the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla; he walks Arizona's migrant trails, visits fenced-in villages in India, and stands with those who protest against Israel's security barrier to understand what these structures say about those who build them, and how they influence the cultures that they pen in. Venturing beyond politics, he encounters the infiltrators who circumvent the walls, the artists who transform them, and the fenced-in ignored and forgotten people who live in their shadow. The walls discussed are: 1. 'The Wall of Shame' in the Western Sahara, built by the Morrocans in 1987 following their defeat by the Spanish. 2. A high-tech 'fence' around the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Meilla. 3. The Indo Bangladesh 'fence', erected in 1947. 4. The West Bank Wall. 5. The 'green line' that separates the Greek from the Turkish-Cypriot quarters in Nicosia, the capital of Cypress, and Lefkosa, the capital of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. 6. The US-Mexico border. 7. The various barriers throughout Belfast. 8.The l'Acadie fence in Montreal, erected as a wall built of chains in 1960.

About this title

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Union Books
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1908526335
• ISBN 13: 9781908526335
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288