GRIT & SILVER BY JOANNA HEYWOOD

Anglo Peruvian Society Talk by Joanna Heywood, author and social entrepreneur

‘Grit and Silver’ is a magical realism novella of the lives of three women growing up in poverty in Peru in the 1990s. Their partners are a soldier and drug producer, an illegal logger and a terrorist leader…  

The women experience life on the fringes of crime, displacement and the grit of survival in urban slums. Their destinies are intertwined from childhood to adulthood and the dream of a better life, sometimes at any cost, runs through their stories like a silver thread. 

grit and silver

It was published in 2020 on the real lives of three Peruvian women whose partners were forcibly recruited by Sendero and forced to become cocaine traffickers. This resulted in all three women losing their homes, their children and facing prison or changing their names and disappearing.

The origins of this story go back to the early 2000s when the author travelled to Peru fresh from university. She volunteered for a year in Lima under the supervision of a missionary who introduced her to life in the Pueblos Jovenes. There, she met communities of people facing the odds together, and most the women featured in this book

One reader said: “This book had me gripped from start to finish. I was absorbed immediately into the world of the jungle, and fascinated by the fact that it was based on true stories. The experiences of these women are awe inspiring, angering and humbling by turns, and the magical realism element added another note to a very rich set of stories. It’s a book that leaves you thinking about it long after you have finished reading, and with lingering images of snakes and love potions, poverty and blood. It’s different from anything else I’ve read.”

The book can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grit-Silver-Joanna-Heywood/dp/1913179842

BIO

Born in Brighton Joanna Heywood was raised by her missionary parents in Belgium, where she learnt French and Dutch. At University in Sterling, she studied Spanish and became interested in South America’s politics and international relations. Joanna now works for Oxfam.

LINKED Projects

Visit: Just a Trade. and. Info Latinos.

Tickets  Members £7.00 GBP  Non-Members £10.00 GBP 

Please note that this will be a Zoom Online presentation.