Bolivia's Dreams of the Sea

150 Years of Solitude

WINNER OF THE 2016 THE BODLEY HEAD &amp; FINANCIAL TIMES ESSAY PRIZE

Laurence Blair (b. Poole, Dorset, 1991) is a British writer and journalist. He studied Ancient and Modern History at Oxford University, and he also holds an MA in International Law and International Relations. 
 
He is the winner of the 2018 RSL Giles St Aubyn Award for his book Lost Countries of South America and the 2016 Bodley Head/Financial Times Essay Prize for his essay 150 Years of Solitude. Since 2014, he has reported from across Latin America for outlets including the Financial Times, Guardian, BBC and National Geographic. 
 
During his research for Lost Countries of South America, he has walked over the Andes in the footsteps of an 1817 revolutionary campaign, explored abandoned guano islands in the Pacific, sailed up the Río Paraguay on a cargo ship and consulted archives and conducted interviews in seven countries to date. He lives in London.

Why does a landlocked nation need a navy? 
 
Over the centuries, Bolivia has lost territory to Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Paraguay, but its greatest loss was access to the ocean. It lost its only coastline to Chile 150 years ago, but the wound is still fresh. Without a single glorious military victory in their past to provide a cohesive, foundational myth, Bolivia is only able to teach its children failures and defeats. 
 
But as Laurence Blair reveals, recent events mean that hope is on the horizon – Bolivia’s navy may soon sail again. Through first-hand reportage, 150 Years of Solitude examines a country’s history of failure and the idea of nation; its deep sense of injustice and isolation; and its dreams of reclaiming a future that hangs in the balance.

Laurence Blair

Extraordinary … [t]his debut turns the familiar story of South America’s origins inside out … There’s something oneiric about South America in Blair’s storytelling; its broiling jungles, smothering cloud forests and desiccated badlands are landscapes on which dreams are built on. … Romantic, adventurous and thrilling, Patria achieves something remarkable. Not only does Blair bring the stink and splendour of these “forgotten nations” to pungent life, but he also forces us to consider how, and why, they came to be lost in the first place. His travels deserve their own TV series. And his book’s import deserves a wide hearing – that to ignore South America’s past is to ignore the planet’s future.

Blair argues that South America is overlooked by the rest of the world, especially Britain … His alternative history aims to redress this deficit … A vivid and wide-ranging account

Energetic and scholarly… Blair is an engaging and knowledgeable guide

A work of scholarship in its own right ... Patria also has a descriptive flair that lifts Blair’s stories off the page. Best of all, it introduces us to the myriad voices within South America that are retelling their own past

Sparkling ... rich and revealing ... Braiding strands of memoir with others of narrative history and journalistic reportage, Patria has a mood that is really quite compelling. For those of you looking for a fresh and immersive read as the nights grow longer, Blair's portrait of this 'lost continent' will make a fine choice indeed.

Past and present cleverly entwine in this erudite, pacy and brilliant book

A distinctive and original account of an under-appreciated continent ... Patria is a feat of historical detail. Blair is an excellent guide

An ambitious, wide-ranging, and illuminating book focusing on South American peoples, places, cultures and eras long overlooked, repressed or misunderstood. ... a fascinating narrative [of] wit, flair and passion

Laurence Blair brings you to some of the hardest-to-reach places on the planet with his lively writing and deep reporting in a book that dives into the rarely told, often ugly and always fascinating history of this beautiful and exploited continent. How did South America arrive here and where is it going? Patria is one of the best books yet to try to answer that question.

This book is a gem: an exuberant history of South America, written with scholarly verve and literary dexterity, and an unputdownable delight from start to finish.

This is a breathtaking palimpsest: an almanac of past worlds stranger and more wonderful than one could ever imagine, and an erudite epic of South America today. Patria is constantly surprising and always enticing. Laurence Blair leads us with masterly vision through the mazes of a continent: he is our new Bruce Chatwin, with a touch of Hemingway

Vivid, fast-paced and wonderfully ambitious … Mixing history, archaeology, politics, ecology, travelogue and current-affairs journalism, Patria teems with alternative stories of a continent’s life and peoples, over five centuries.

Patria is both enlightening and surprisingly difficult to put down

Once in a great while comes a work that not only captures the essence of a region, it does so in an entirely new way, with a clear eye and a big heart. Such is Laurence Blair's Patria, which turns a sharp lens on Latin America, offering us an original view of its many idiosyncrasies. Instead of a stolid march of events, he sees flesh and blood characters, quirky destinies, epic ambitions, high adventure. This is history at its most vibrant. It is also a snapshot of the here and now. At once grounded in solid research and livened by vivid reportage, Patria is a magnificent contribution to the Latin American canon.

Combining intrepid reportage and extensive historical research, Patria travels to the heart of South America. A gripping and polemical account of the continent’s rich and often tragic past and troubled present

author of FORGOTTEN CONTINENT: A HISTORY OF THE NEW LATIN AMERICA

Through rich storytelling, Patria demonstrates that the way we remember cultures from long ago—the Inca empire in Peru, the escaped slaves of Palmares in Brazil, the Diaguita in Argentina, to name a few—still very much influences how each country is building its present. And we must be mindful of what we choose to remember.

Interweaving reportage with an admirably researched historical narrative ... infused with the spirit of Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America, and with a professional journalist’s eye for detail, Blair reports from the front line of the centuries-long war between big business – loggers, ranchers, mining interests – and the indigenous communities who continue to resist, all the while connecting the past with the present.

In this extensive, well-researched and entertaining book, Laurence Blair leads us to and through South America, present and past … [Patria] transports us to a kaleidoscopic and fascinating universe that is foreign yet familiar

Laurence Blair throws away the traditional map and takes a dramatic plunge into little-known corners of South America, moving seamlessly between the complexities of the past and present. This expansive work not only restores these misplaced histories, but also charts important new ways for thinking about the continent’s wider place in the world.

author of EL NORTE: THE EPIC AND FORGOTTEN STORY OF HISPANIC NORTH AMERICA

I thought I knew a lot about the history of South America until I read this fascinating mixture of history, travel and adventure. A must-read

Ambitious and far-reaching... integrating research into pre-Columbian remains with the contemporary experience of crossing borders as a sharp-eyed, backpacking witness

PRAISE FOR 150 YEARS OF SOLITUDE: BOLIVIA'S DREAMS OF THE SEA

Laurence Blair has invented a completely new genre of literature: magical journalism, at once fantastical and pragmatically droll. It's full of weird wit but also a deep sensitivity to the wounds of national sentiment. It's one of a kind

A brilliantly mature intellectual jigsaw puzzle, combining ... nationalistic history, with personal anecdote, travel writing and narrative sweep ... a hugely ambitious project

Lost Countries of South America

Stretching from the edge of Antarctica to the shores of the Caribbean, South America is a continent of stunning natural beauty and biodiversity, a cultural and culinary powerhouse that feeds, fuels and cools the planet. Yet this vast region remains an enigma to many outsiders, its 450 million inhabitants often forgotten, or stereotyped as eternal victims of colonialism, crime and corruption. 
 
Patria reveals an alternative history of South America, spanning thousands of miles and five centuries to the present. Looking beyond modern borders, Laurence Blair takes as his waymarks nine countries that can’t be found on a map: vanished realms, half-imagined utopias and dismembered homelands. He travels to each in turn – on foot and horseback, by rail and river – to trace their rise, fall and unexpected afterlives. 
 
Blair goes in search of ancient Amazonian civilisations, a rebel Inca dynasty in the jungle, and the Patagonian power that defeated Imperial Spain. His journey ranges from a seafaring Peruvian kingdom made rich by bird droppings, to a fearsome nation of fugitives that defied slavery in Brazil, and an insurgent desert confederation that went down fighting with an Andalusian conman. He falls in with Bolivia’s landlocked navy, the African freedom fighters who marched over the Andes to liberate the hemisphere, and the New World Napoleon who led Paraguay to its ruin. 
 
Patria incorporates groundbreaking recent scholarship, striking archaeological discoveries and vivid eyewitness reporting – including encounters with drug lords, Indigenous leaders, refugees bound for the United States and former guerrillas – to weave an epic of survival, resistance and revolution. This is the story of South America as is rarely told: at the epicentre of global history and the forging of the modern world.

Laurence Blair

Praise for Patria

Extraordinary … [t]his debut turns the familiar story of South America’s origins inside out … There’s something oneiric about South America in Blair’s storytelling; its broiling jungles, smothering cloud forests ...

Blair argues that South America is overlooked by the rest of the world, especially Britain … His alternative history aims to redress this deficit … A vivid and wide-ranging account

Energetic and scholarly… Blair is an engaging and knowledgeable guide

Extraordinary … [t]his debut turns the familiar story of South America’s origins inside out … There’s something oneiric about South America in Blair’s storytelling; its broiling jungles, smothering cloud forests ...

Blair argues that South America is overlooked by the rest of the world, especially Britain … His alternative history aims to redress this deficit … A vivid and wide-ranging account

Energetic and scholarly… Blair is an engaging and knowledgeable guide

Extraordinary … [t]his debut turns the familiar story of South America’s origins inside out … There’s something oneiric about South America in Blair’s storytelling; its broiling jungles, smothering cloud forests ...

Blair argues that South America is overlooked by the rest of the world, especially Britain … His alternative history aims to redress this deficit … A vivid and wide-ranging account

Energetic and scholarly… Blair is an engaging and knowledgeable guide

Books by Laurence Blair

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