Looking for Alicia won the 2024 Jacob Isaac Segal award for Best Quebec Book on a Jewish Theme, offered by the Jewish Public Library of Montreal. https://jewishpubliclibrary.org/events-programs-courses/jisegal-awards-2024/

The jury’s citation reads:

“Marc Raboy’s Looking for Alicia delves into Argentina’s post-Peron period of terror, almost fifty years ago now, to chart the life, the disappearance, and almost certain death of a young journalist and activist who shared a surname with the author, and perhaps a distant kinship. The book is a quest, a chronicle, and a passionate analysis of a terrifying episode in that country’s history, forthright in its assessment of the major players on both sides of the struggle. Raboy’s quest is all the more poignant for the resemblances between the author and Alicia— their common family origins as immigrants from shtetls in Ukraine, their Jewish upbringing, and their shared passion for social justice, one life lived in Buenos Aires the other in Montreal. The comparisons between the trajectories of these two socially conscious journalists following the same tradition of left-wing Jewish commitment—with very different consequences—enhance the impact of an already riveting story. The book is beautifully written, masterfully structured, and is the jury’s unanimous choice as the winner of the 2024 Segal Prize for Best Quebec Book on a Jewish Theme.”

 

(December 3, 2024)

Marconi: L’uomo che ha connesso il mondo (Milano: Hoepli editore https://www.marconi150.it/giornate-marconi/) was launched in Bologna, Italy, as part of activities commemorating the 150^th anniversary of the birth of Guglielmo Marconi.

https://www.marconi150.it/giornate-marconi/

 

Concurrent with the book’s launch, author Marc Raboy was presented with the 2024 “Marconist of the XXIst Century” award, instituted by the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation in 2005 in recognition of personalities who, touched in some way by Guglielmo Marconi’s work, have contributed to understanding societies. https://fondazioneguglielmomarconi.it/marconisti-del-xxi-secolo/

 

A press review of the Italian edition can be found here https://www.marcraboy.org/marconi/

 

(April 25, 2024)

I was honoured to be the moderator of an important discussion on freedom of speech at the 2023 Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival in Montreal. [https://bluemetropolis.org/event/freedom-of-speech-propaganda-and-cacophony/]

The discussion focused on the challenges facing the fundamental human right of freedom of expression in the age of social media, ongoing government attempts at repression, and corporate control of communication resources.

I have published on this and related questions for over thirty years and it continues to be one of my main concerns.

Looking for Alicia: The Unfinished Life of an Argentinian Rebel was announced winner of the 2022 Quebec Writers’ Federation prestigious Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction at last night’s annual QWF Awards Gala. [https://qwf.org/award-year/2022/]

The Jury’s citation reads as follows:

“Marc Raboy’s investigation into the disappearance of Argentine journalist and social activist, Alicia Raboy, succeeds in many ways. As a personal memoir, it uncovers surprising family links (Marc and Alicia are distantly related). As a political essay, it delves into the nature of repressive and democratic governments. As a page-turning story, it sweeps away the dust around a decades-old mystery. As a cautionary tale, it warns of the consequences that idealistic youth inevitably face in their zeal to confront corrupt powers that be. As a moral treatise, it posits that the search for justice is an obligation that continues long after unpunished crimes were committed.”

You can access more news and reviews about Looking for Alicia here