2012 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing Finalist
Marcello Di Cintio
Walls: Travels Along the Barricades
Published by Goose Lane Editions
Jury Citation
"When Ronald Reagan exhorted Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, it was not only a political act. As Marcello di Cintio discovers, walls divide far more than nations. In this beautifully written reportage, the author brings readers the personal stories – gripping, haunting, humorous, and inspiring – of people living against walls around the world, from the “peaceline” of Belfast to the l’Acadie fence of Montreal."
About the Book
What does it mean to live against a wall? In this ambitious blend of travel and reportage, Marcello Di Cintio explores the world’s most disputed edges to meet with those who live alongside the razor wire, concrete, and steel. He visits fenced-in villages in northeast India, walks Arizona’s migrant trails, and travels to Palestinian villages to witness the protests against Israel’s security barrier. From Native American reservations on the US-Mexico border and the “Great Wall of Montreal” to Cyprus’s divided capital and the Peace Lines of Belfast, Di Cintio seeks to understand what these barriers reveal about their builders and how they influence the cultures they enclose.
About the Author
Marcello Di Cintio’s first book, Harmattan: Wind Across West Africa, won the Henry Kreisel Award for Best First Book. His second book, Poets and Pahlevans: A Journey Into the Heart of Iran, won the Wilfred Eggleston Prize. Walls was longlisted for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-fiction and the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction. Di Cintio has also written for numerous magazines, journals, and newspapers, including the Walrus, EnRoute, and the Globe and Mail. He lives in Calgary.