On 11th April 1982, just a few days before he was due to be
released from military service, Roberto Herrcher then
19, is sent to fight in the Falkland Islands. In May the Argentine Navy
requisitioned the Penelope and assigned a crew of seven to her that included
young Herrscher. During a whole month the author was
to live through the war without any knowledge of being on board a historic
ship. Years later he followed the wake of the ‘Penelope’ –the smallest and
oldest ship to take part in the Malvinas war– to uncover her history. The ship
was originally built for an expedition to Patagonia led by Gunther
Plüschow, a World War I German hero. In 1929 it was
bought by an islander who renamed it Penelope. Herrscher traveled to Buenos Aires, the
Falkkand Islands and Germany and brings together not
only the fascinating story of the Penelope, also the lives of the islanders
since the war up to the present days. As he investigated the Germany’s past, he
came across the ghosts of war and unearthed details of his own past.
Praise for Los viajes del Penélope:
“With its particular
structure and the vivid experience in some of its pages Los viajes del Penélope, is a good approach to the chiaroscuros in the
most modern and uneven war that Argentina had to face.” La Nación