Death in the Andes
Books / Hardcover
ISBN: 0374140014 / Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux, February 1996
Set in an isolated, rundown community in the Peruvian Andes, a part mystery, part political allegory follows a series of disappearances that involve the Shining Path guerrillas and a local couple who performs Dionysian sacrifices.
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The novel tells the story of army corporal Lituma and his deputy Tomas, who have been assigned to treacherous guard duty in an isolated, run-down mining community in the mountains of Peru. The men are homesick and far from enthusiastic about serving as foot soldiers in the Peruvian Army's ongoing war against the Shining Path guerrillas. So, to pass the time, Tomas tells the story of his great love, Mercedes, a troublemaking prostitute who leads him on a precarious, cross-country adventure. But life in the Andes soon turns eventful, too. Lituma and Tomas find themselves caught up in a series of mysterious disappearances involving the Shining Path and, soon enough, a local couple performing cannibalistic sacrifices with a strange similarity to the Dionysian rituals of ancient Greece.Part detective novel and part political allegory, Death in the Andes offers a panoramic view of Peru today - not only of the current political violence and social upheaval but also of the country's roots in Indian culture and pre-Hispanic mysticism.
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