Ripped And Torn

Description

Amaranta Wright was a young writer living in Miami when Levi's hired her to travel through Latin America. Her brief was to befriend teenagers and report back with every aspect of their lives: their hopes, fears, dreams and aspirations.
At first, she saw the job as a means to travel around a continent she loved.
But as time passed, the more sinister and divisive aspects of what she was being asked to do became apparent, her attempts to understand the dispossessed of these countries constantly frustrated by the mechanics of corporate globalisation - its unspoken aim to reduce individuals to bullet points.
This is a compellingly humane portrait of a continent in crisis - riddled with paradox, complexity, beauty and brutality.
It is a book about the arrogance with which we in the West refer to 'developing' continents, the developed world's overarching desire to turn people into consumers, and the often insidious methods employed to this end.
It is about what happens when indigenous voices are silenced by corporate vision.
An evocative, startling and politically-incisive book.

Promotion info

A powerful and thought-provoking account of the destructive spread of corporate globalisation

Reviews

"Never preaching, always aware of why the individuals she meets are so ready to buy into the consumer dream, Wright details an unforgettable journey of personal discovery while exposing the nihilism which underwrites our global economy."
-"Independent on Sunday"
"The book's power comes from the sense that she dives straight in, that she wears the glad rags, pops the pills, dances the dances and loves the people she meets."
-"The Guardian"
"An intriguing read on the politics and passions of changing nations."
-"Sunday Times Travel Magazine"

Author description

Amaranta Wright was born in Buenos Aires in 1972. After reading History at Magdalen College, Oxford, she returned to Argentina and wrote for the Buenos Aires Herald. It was while working in Miami that she was recruited by Levi Strauss as an undercover researcher. Her brief was to investigate the youth of Latin America. She currently writes for the Financial Times, amongst others, and is seeking funding for an ethical magazine for teenagers.