It only takes a book, it only takes a song, it only takes someone under torture to whisper your name. Franca Jarach is one of the 30,000 desaparecidos of Argentina. She was taken, and all traces of her immediately vanished. This is her story.

On June 25, 1976, 18-year-old Franca was kidnapped. She had been one of the brightest students at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, the most prestigious school in the Argentine capital. She lived a happy life with her parents, Vera and Giorgio, Italian Jews who had fled overseas after the racial laws. A talented and multifaceted young woman, Franca wrote poetry, played music, painted, and was deeply engaged in politics. She had begun working as a graphic designer and dreamed of becoming a teacher. But in the Argentina of Plan Cóndor, where opposition was silenced through the brutal elimination of dissidents, political activism could be a death sentence. Her disappearance was sudden. Every trace of her was lost. Only after seven years of desperate searches, false leads, blackmail phone calls, and unanswered appeals did her parents uncover the first fragments of truth. Yet it was only in the new millennium that her mother, Vera Jarach, was finally able to piece together what had truly happened to her daughter. This meticulous and poignant book pieces together the fragments of Franca’s corta vida, intertwining them with the broader currents of history. It gives voice to those who knew her—above all, to Vera, a courageous mother who transformed her personal search for truth into a collective struggle. Memory, truth, justice — these are the demands of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo. And this book stands as another step in keeping their fight alive.