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2022: Children play chicken on the railway tracks
2022: Children play chicken on the railway tracks
When she hears about the suicide of a local train driver who has jumped off the roof of a block of flats, leaving a suicide note confessing to four mortal ‘accidents’ on the train tracks, she decides to investigate.
For the police the case is closed (suicide is suicide), for Veronica it is the beginning of a journey that takes her into an unfamiliar world of grinding poverty, junkie infested neighborhoods, and train drivers on commuter lines haunted by the memory of bodies hit at speed by their locomotives in the middle of the night.
Aided by a train driver informant, a junkie in rehab and two street kids willing to risk everything for a can of Coke, she uncovers a group of men involved in betting on working-class youngsters convinced to play Russian roulette by standing in front of fast-coming trains to see who endures the longest. With bodies of children crushed under tons of steel, those of adults yielding to relentless desire, the resolution of the investigation reveals the deep bonds which unite desire and death.
Buenos Aires and the shanty towns
This author captures the various facets of society life in the country and capital – Buenos Aires. We see the grinding poverty and the face of panic on each and every person living there. These people live a dangerous existance.
Young boys think they have a chance of escape by being good at football. Sadly, there are many who are waiting to exploit them. Their desperation is easily modelled into something else. Boys from the slums play chicken on the train tracks – a result of bets made by the men who take them from the slums with the promise of a new life.
The poverty, deprevation and the wider picture come into full focus in this gritty read.
Destination: Buenos Aires Author/guide: Sergio Olguin Departure Time: 2022
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