cover image A Year of Favor

A Year of Favor

Julia MacDonnell. William Morrow & Company, $25 (330pp) ISBN 978-0-688-12546-2

``You can't tell both sides of a story when one side, the most powerful side, is lying and the other side is inaccessible,'' says Lizzie Guerrera in this compelling debut. Lizzie is a reporter who exchanges street violence in the South Bronx for civil war in Bellavista, a fictional Central American country. She is sent to Bellavista after her paper's star reporter describes the massacre of hundreds of civilians by a Bellavistan junta propped up by U.S. ``advisors,'' a massacre the state department insists never happened. Initially, Lizzie reports on staged land reform and public works projects, but her desire to play by the rules is swamped by a masochistic affair with junta leader General Rivas Valdez, who promises peace yet deals death and treachery. MacDonnell creates a memorable if not always likable cast, including photographer Sonia Alvinas, whose contemptuous gibes get under Lizzie's skin, and Mary Healy, an American midwife burning with a saint's zeal. Although the story is hindered somewhat by slack pacing, MacDonnell has constructed a compelling novel on a fundamental misunderstanding between desk-bound editors and reporters: What if you tell the truth and the story is still a lie?A false note is struck by Lizzie's frequent, conscious refusals to ask essential questions, a curious habit in a reporter. (Feb.)