Alec Smyth

Thriving in the Storm Alec Smyth

This is a memoir about growing up wild and free - in a war zone. The stories, reminiscent of Gerald Durrell's "My Family and Other Animals," may make you laugh out loud. Yet the context is Argentina's "Dirty War" of the 1970s. Violence intrudes on childhood, but only seems to make the kids more resilient and entrepreneurial. In the midst of the mayhem, people still go to work and school, get married, or take vacations. The author develops a life-long love of the ocean and of engineering through a series of high adventures that many of today's parents may consider too dangerous, but which gradually forge a considered attitude to risk. It may seem surprising given the wartime context, but this is the story of a childhood that can only be called idyllic.