Death in the AndesBy Brett Bailey

The violence of Latin America during the last hundred years or so has been well chronicled by some of its greatest authors. From Colombian author Gabriel to Chilean Isabelle Allende to Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, the author of Death in the Andes, violence is a theme well trod, a frighteningly comfortable concept that is often used to great effect. While not as exhaustive in its examination of evil, violence and the way treachery and danger shape a country's (and a person's) psyche as The Feast of the Goat, Llosa's Death in the Andes is an intricately structured back and forth of voices past and present. And, perhaps surprisingly, it is a story of love.In a remote mining town in the Andes, people have gone missing. The civil guard is called in, but nobody is talking to them. To make matters worse, the Andes is an abandoned paper factory inhabited by madmen with torches - the area is volatile, hostile, incredibly political and horribly violent. Factions are fighting for influence, power and, as often as not, for money and women.

While Tomasito and Lituma question people to find out who is killing and why, Tomasito talks about his love for Mercedes, a woman he met a few years ago. From here, the narrative fragments, splitting paragraphs and pages between the present time of Tomasito and Lituma's investigations, and the younger Tomasito's quest for love. The flow of the story offers little by way of indication as to the dominant narrative framework, which requires the reader to be extra attentive as time shifts forward and backwards. Generally, though, before the narrative shifts, the characters will engage in dialogue, which forms something of an road map for what is happening with the story.Added to this are the asides where we follow the life and death of several characters. These stories would serve very well as short pieces in their own right and add to the strength of the novel as a whole. There is the sad story of the albino merchant who wronged a woman in his youth, and throughout his life she haunts his mind and, finally, kills him. There is the story of the mute who dies horribly, and so on. These stories serve to add to the menace of the Andes as the main characters interact with warriors, warlords, rebels and the military. There is a sense that this violence is eternal, that the names and places may change but the fight will always rage on. We are told very little about the political situation, other than to highlight how bad it all is. Tomasito's story, past and present, is a series of tense situations where seeming madmen have the power of life and death over him and everyone else they come into contact with.