Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History

In his latest, Uruguayan author Galeano (Memory of Fire) spreads the history of human civilization across a year’s worth of impressionistic and factual daily entries. With each passing day, details of an important event—or one lost to history’s selective memory—illuminate the humanity and barbarism of our species. Good and evil, beauty and ugliness, generosity and greed—all are juxtaposed to great effect. An example that sets the conflicted tone for the entire work comes early—on January 12, Galeano writes of the morning in 2007 when famed violinist Joshua Bell played unheeded to hurried masses of subway commuters in Washington, D.C.; the next day, TV evangelist Pat Robertson blames the massive 2010 earthquake in Haiti on the Haitian citizens themselves. The only criticism that can be leveled at Galeano’s grand calendar is a familiar one—the days just aren’t long enough. Each takes up less than a page, and while their brevity adds to their impact, it also makes it difficult to slow down to appreciate each snapshot. Perhaps it is a challenge from author to reader to take one day at a time. Whatever Galeano’s intention, this is a heady portrait of the human story rendered in broad, though no less incisive and affecting, strokes. 12 b&w illus. Agent: Susan Bergholz, Susan Bergholz Literary Services. (May 1)