{"product_id":"checkpoint-zipolite-quarantine-in-a-small-place-9781682193068","title":"Checkpoint Zipolite: Quarantine in a Small Place","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“When I first committed to three full months in El Salvador, the feeling that I was signing up for the equivalent of marriage and reproduction was assuaged only by the awareness that, come March 2020, I’d be dashing around Mexico before flying to Istanbul and resuming freneticism in that hemisphere. Little did I know that the scribbled itinerary would never come to fruition, and that I’d only get as far as the coastal village of Zipolite in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, where March 13-25 would turn into March 13 until further notice.”\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSince leaving her American homeland in 2003 Belén Fernández had been an inveterate traveler. Ceaselessly wandering the world, the only constant in her itinerary was a conviction never to return to the country of her childhood. Then the COVID-19 lockdown happened and Fernandez found herself stranded in a small village on the Pacific coast of Mexico.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis charming, wryly humorous account of nine months stuck in one place nevertheless roams freely: over reflections on previous excursions to the wilder regions of North Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe; over her new-found friendship with Javier, the mezcal-drinking, chain-smoking near-septuagenarian she encounters in his plastic chair on Mexico’s only clothing-optional beach; over her protracted struggle to obtain a life-saving supply of yerba mate; and over, literally, the rope of a COVID-19 checkpoint, set up directly outside her front door and manned by armed guards who require her to don a mask every time she returns home.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I doubt there’s another journalist quite like her… Fernández’s prose is so incisive, pithy, powerful, and often funny.” —\u003cstrong\u003eCounterpunch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“This is a travel memoir like no other: incredibly funny, observant, humane, anarchic, politically incisive, sophisticated, and raffish. Belén Fernández is a dangerously enchanting siren.\" —\u003cstrong\u003eFrancisco Goldman, author of \u003cem\u003eMonkey Boy\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“A politically astute, world-wise, and occasionally hilarious gem of a book. Fernández's prose is an antidote to quarantine, an aperture to the anti-humanism of apartheid politics.\" —\u003cstrong\u003eJohn Washington, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the US-Mexican Border and Beyond\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“Written with the author’s trademark wine bottle in hand, between cartwheels on the beach of death, this book skewers politicians and other unworthy foes with a precision inaccessible to more sober writers...” —\u003cstrong\u003eAdrienne Pine, author of \u003cem\u003eWorking Hard, Drinking Hard: On Violence and Survival in Honduras\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“This is hardcore, down-dirty travel and travel writing. A personal \u003cem\u003eImperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism\u003c\/em\u003e. A new and powerful form of nonfiction, a primer.” —\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Eurasia Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"OR Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51359994544471,"sku":"9781682193068","price":12.34,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781682193068.jpg?v=1754126345","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/checkpoint-zipolite-quarantine-in-a-small-place-9781682193068","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}