'The Prisoners, Mothers Behind Bars' by Isabel Nery: Portuguese Literary Journalism at Its best

Abstract

The “human interest story as social parable” (Kerrane 1997: 17) is the cornerstone of Isabel Nery’s book The Prisoners, Mothers behind bars (2012). It pays respect to ordinary people with extraordinary lives, a relevant feature of literary journalism (Sims 1995: 3). For months, Nery sat, observed, listened and talked to the jailed mothers in two prisons in Portugal, Tires and Santa Cruz do Bispo, and in Rhode Island in the USA. The author tells their stories and gives voice to their thoughts and feelings in an attempt to uncover and recover the dignity of human life. Immersion reporting and a critical standpoint result in an impactful testimony of the harsh reality of imprisoned motherhood and childhood and the experience of constrained freedom where the absence of sun, joy and care are deeply felt. Nery is a literary journalist who reveals the emotional state of feminine human nature behind bars where survival, (re)adaptation and guilt go hand in hand with despair from lack of fellow human concern.