El Cazador Ausente = The Absent Hunter

Perhaps owing to Latin America's convulsive history, many of the continent's writers have felt the need to create and maintain historical records. This novel, which won the prestigious international Las Dos Orillas prize, is a meticulous account of a generation caught in the history of their country, Peru. In 1970, a group of friends, poets, and aspiring national leaders from the Left, full of hopes for the future and dreaming of changing the world, executed someone who betrayed their movement. Their lives changed dramatically as they suffered jail sentences, years of seclusion, madness, and exile. Fifteen years later, Pereda, one of the members of the group who is now a freelance photojournalist exiled in Germany, returns to Peru to confront his ghosts. Although he claims to be documenting aspects of Cuzco and Madre de Dios, two important environmental regions, for some European magazines, Pereda immerses himself in finding out what really happened all those years ago. With great mastery, Pita, author of Morituri (Correcaminos, 1990) and the book of poetry Sandalias del viento (Sandals of the Wind, Extramares, 1995), has developed a profound account of violence, betrayal, death, myth, and hope. This voyage to the past is full of literary footnotes and detailed Peruvian history. Highly recommended for bookstores, especially those serving Peruvian communities, as well as for public and academic libraries. Lourdes V zquez, Rutgers Univ. Lib., New Brunswick, NJ