Kirjahaku

The award-winning and haunting novel from Rodrigo Hasb n, the literary star Jonathan Safran Foer calls, "a great writer," about an unusual family's breakdown--set in South America during the time of Che Guevara and inspired by the life of Third Reich cinematographer Hans Ertl.Inspired by real events, Affections is the story of the eccentric, fascinating Ertl clan, headed by the egocentric and extraordinary Hans, once the cameraman for the Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. Shortly after the end of World War II, Hans and his family flee to Bolivia to start over. There, the ever-restless Hans decides to embark on an expedition in search of the fabled lost Inca city of Paitit , enlisting two of his daughters to join him on his outlandish quest into the depths of the Amazon, with disastrous consequences. "A one-sitting tale of fragmented relationships with a broad scope, delivered with grace and power" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Affections traces the Ertls's slow and inevitable breakdown through the various erratic trajectories of each family member: Hans's undertakings of colossal, foolhardy projects and his subsequent spectacular failures; his daughter Monika, heir to his adventurous spirit, who joins the Bolivian Marxist guerrillas and becomes known as "Che Guevara's avenger"; and his wife and two younger sisters left to pick up the pieces in their wake. "Hasb n writes with patience and precision, revealing the family's most intimate thoughts and interactions: first smokes, blind love, and familial devotion. This is a novel to savor for its richness and grace and its historical and political scope" (Booklist, starred review)--a masterfully layered tale of how a family's voyage of discovery ends up eroding the affections that once held it together.

"It's impossible to get a singleanswer from the past. It's not a key to anything. It's just a place we go totrick ourselves." Andrea and Juli n haven't seen oneanother in twenty-one years--not since that tragic, fateful night their senioryear of high school that marked their group of friends forever. A shockingphone call brings the two together again in Houston, where they begin to unravelthe truth of that year, picking open long scabbed-over wounds from theirupper-class adolescence in 1990s Bolivia and the scandal that ripped them apart. A writer unhappy in his career andhis marriage, Juli n has been novelizing the past for his next book, trying tomake meaning out of the events that changed the course of their lives forever. "I'dthought that writing about that time would free me, relieve the burden of theinvisible years," he writes, "but often it seems that it's done the reverse."Juxtaposing the na ve invincibility of adolescence with the grasping uncertaintiesof adulthood, The Invisible Years deftly weaves a coming-of-age tale thatleaves the reader hanging on every word, even as they know how the cards fallin the end.