由於感受到過去許多美好價值已漸漸崩壞，《拉丁美洲：被切開的血管》作者愛德華多．加萊亞諾決定重拾被史卷遺落的事蹟，透過每日一篇，共365篇小故事來提醒現代人黑暗的歷史以及得來不易的甜美果實，進而認真思考人類現在所處的環境以及我們所做的每一個選擇。
故事篇幅雖短，卻篇篇擲地有聲、發人深省，例如：巴西政府曾以「破壞公共道德」為由禁止接吻，便有巴西民眾發起一個「親吻活動」抗議官方的迂腐；1901年，被貼上「瀆聖」標籤的女子們，在拉科魯尼亞地區的教堂裡公開結婚。除了事件，也有被特別彰顯的個人，如波斯大臣Abdul Kassem Ismael當年擔心書籍典章被戰爭波及，便找來四百頭駱駝運出近十二萬冊的大部頭藏書，形成約一英里長的行動圖書館。
經過作者多年來潛心挖掘與記錄，書中每一則故事好似一盞美麗的燭光，透過文字在讀者心中緩緩地映照出溫暖的光芒。（文／博客來編譯）
Unfurling like a medieval book of days, each page of Eduardo Galeano’s Children of the Days has an illuminating story that takes inspiration from that date of the calendar year, resurrecting the heroes and heroines who have fallen off the historical map, but whose lives remind us of our darkest hours and sweetest victories.
Challenging readers to consider the human condition and our own choices, Galeano elevates the little-known heroes of our world and decries the destruction of the intellectual, linguistic, and emotional treasures that we have all but forgotten.
Readers will discover many inspiring narratives in this collection of vignettes: the Brazilians who held a “smooch-in” to protest against a dictatorship for banning kisses that “undermined public morals”; the astonishing day Mexico invaded the United States; and the “sacrilegious” women who had the effrontery to marry each other in a church in the Galician city of A Coruna in 1901. Galeano also highlights individuals such as Pedro Fernandes Sardinha, the first bishop of Brazil, who was eaten by Caete Indians off the coast of Alagoas, as well as Abdul Kassem Ismael, the grand vizier of Persia, who kept books safe from war by creating a walking library of 117,000 tomes aboard four hundred camels, forming a mile-long caravan.
Beautifully translated by Galeano’s longtime collaborator, Mark Fried, Children of the Days is a majestic humanist treasure that shows us how to live and how to remember. It awakensthe best in us.
