Tuesday, May 05, 2009

April in Peru


No crime today, just vacation. Here I am standing nervously above the precipice in Machu Picchu, with the peak of Huayna Picchu in the background. If you want to see more of our vacation photos, there's a sample here, or you can navigate to aprilinperu.blogspot.com. I didn't find any Peruvian crime writers--if anyone has any clues about that, please let me know.

3 comments:

LauraR said...

haven't read this - but here's one set in Peru - http://www.amazon.com/Red-April-Novel-Santiago-Roncagliolo/dp/0375425446

Peter Rozovsky said...

And here's another reading suggestion, you Machu man.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

Sebastien Ardouin said...

Like LauraR, I wuold definitely recommend "Abril Rojo / Red April" (2006), a fast-paced novel by Santiago Roncagliolo, set in Ayacucho in 2000 during Holy Week. Given the importance of the political context (the internal war of the 1980s and 1990s essentially fought between the security forces and the Maoist guerrilla movement Shining Path, the role of the armed forces in the Ayacucho region, the 2000 presidential election won fraudulently by Alberto Fujimori who was seeking a third term, the social, racial and geographical divisions that characterize Peru) some knowledge about the country's recent history and political developments helps to get the most of this thoroughly enjoyable novel, which won the 2006 Alfaguarra Prize.

Alonso Cueto ("La hora azul", "Grandes miradas"), Alfredo Pita ("El cazador ausente / The Absent Hunter"), Fernando Ampuero ("Caramelo verde") as well as some of Mario Vargas Llosa's novels are also worth checking.