The Pear Tree

Late one night, Eric Stener Carlson sat down to review witness statements of torture victims splayed across his desk ... and so this book began. It takes us on a journey from the mass graves of Argentina, to the desolate slums of Peru, to the brutality of the Dominican Republic and the rape camps of the former Yugoslavia. As the scenery and actors change, three elements surface again and again, like worn rocks on the beach. The stranger we fear. The child who is kidnapped. And the torture we use to save her. It is here, at the desolate intersection of these elements, that Carlson asks the dreadful question, "Is torture ever justified?" Lyrical and haunting, The Pear Tree is a stark exposition of torturers and victims, and the witnesses who choose to support one side or the other. Book jacket.