RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
"The Blue Line," Ingrid Betancourt's new novel, is about a woman growing up in 1970s Argentina who sees the world through the eyes of others. The woman, Julia, is a witness to Argentina's so-called Dirty War. This makes her different from millions of other Argentines who say they know nothing about the disappearances, tortures and murders that Argentina's military government used to rule and quash dissent. Ingrid Betancourt grew up in a Colombian political family and was running for president of her country as a candidate of the Green Party when she was kidnapped by revolutionaries in 2002. She was held captive in the jungle for more than six years until she was rescued by Colombian security forces. She wrote a memoir about her experience that was a bestseller around the world. "The Blue Line" is her first novel. Scott Simon spoke with Ingrid Betancourt earlier this week and he began by asking if the story of a young woman in captivity is in some way autobiographical.
INGRID BETANCOURT: Well, certainly there are, you know, influences of things that I have lived. But actually it's like - it's a reverse biography 'cause this girl, she's a leftist kind of revolutionary that's going to be abducted or disappeared by a dictatorship, a military dictatorship. In my case, it was the opposite. I was a Colombian presidential candidate, and I was abducted by a guerilla - communist guerilla group.
SCOTT SIMON, BYLINE: At the same time, when you write about characters - and not just Julia - but when you write about characters who are held in detention and tortured, you have some special insight into that. This is not just something you read in a manual, is it?
BETANCOURT: No, no. I think that, you know, human suffering is something that we share. It's easy when you have suffered to feel the link with what others have gone through. That's my case. But what I wanted to narrate and to relive through my novel was the very dire and barbarian abuse and torture that many young people in Latin America suffered during the '70s. And I say this with lots of caution because this is something that we are living today. Before, in the '70s, it was the fear of communism.
Today, we have another ism, which his extremism - Islamic extremism - and whenever we see - it's like, history repeating itself. I was looking very closely to what happened, for example, in Iran of the executions, the harassment against women, all in the name of this political way of seeing the world. I think we have to be very careful.
SIMON: Tell us about Theo, Julia's love since, I guess, she was 15. And as a boy - young man, really - he had posters of both Che Guevara and Juan Peron up in his room.
BETANCOURT: Yeah.
SIMON: How do we explain that duality?
BETANCOURT: I think that what is interesting in the character of Theo is that it was a young man, very bright, very intelligent and with lots of character and wit and who believed he was this kind of leader. And so he saw himself as some kind of a hero in a way. But when confronted to torture, he came to discover that he was frail and that he couldn't cope.
SIMON: That raises an obvious question and I'm going to ask it - I'm going to ask it of you first as a novelist. How do two people recover normal lives after what they've seen and been through?
BETANCOURT: Well, in the case of Julie and Theo, it's two ways. It's parallel kind of motion. Julia will dig into what's important for her, her son, the love she has for Theo, and she will be always walking to the future. She has her path in the future so she has hope. Theo is anchored in his hate, in his thirst of revenge. He cannot forget and he's drawn to the past. But I think that it's also what he chose. And the choices we make define ourselves.
SIMON: So, if I may, is that a choice you had to make after six and a half years?
BETANCOURT: Yes. Yes, I think it's - that's why - you know, a novel, it's also a way of attacking subjects that you cannot confront in the I kind of prose. Sometimes you need other people to embody situations so that you can talk about things that for you are important. And I think that being able to hope for the future is what builds in us the strength to just get rid of things that in the past can hurt.
SIMON: And how are you doing?
BETANCOURT: I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine. One of the things I had to decide when I came to freedom was if I was going to continue doing politics. And I think that during the years of captivity, having, you know - I mean, I lost everything - my life, my father died, I didn't know anything about my children. And when I was in this jungle alone and thinking of my life and trying to summarize the good and the bad, I thought the only thing that is important in my life that I don't want to lose are my children. I mean, I want to be a mom again if I have the opportunity. So when I came back, that's what I did.
I mean - and my reconstruction has been first and above everything, reconstructing the link, the relationship, the love - but more than the love, intimacy and the proximity with my two children. And I'm very, very lucky because after seven years, I think that's something we all have achieved, and it makes us strong, all of us.
SIMON: Ingrid Betancourt's novel is "The Blue Line." Thanks so much.
BETANCOURT: Thank you, Scott.