A chilling, internationally acclaimed political thriller, Red April is a grand achievement in contemporary Latin American fiction, written by the youngest winner ever of the Alfaguara Prize-one of the most prestigious in the Spanish-speaking world-and translated from the Spanish by one of our most celebrated literary translators, Edith Grossman. It evokes Holy Week during a cruel, bloody, and terrifying time in Peru's history, shocking for its corrosive mix of assassination, bribery, intrigue, torture, and enforced disappearance-a war between grim, ideologically-driven terrorism and morally bankrupt government counterinsurgency.

Mother-haunted, wife-abandoned, literature-loving, quietly eccentric Felix Chacaltana Saldivar is a hapless, by-the-book, unambitious prosecutor living in Lima. Until now he has lived a life in which nothing exceptionally good or bad has ever happened to him. But, inexplicably, he has been put in charge of a bizarre and horrible murder investigation. As it unfolds by propulsive twists and turns-full of paradoxes and surprises-Saldivar is compelled to confront what happens to a man and a society when death becomes the only certainty in life.

Stunning for its self-assured and nimble clarity of style-reminiscent of classic noir fiction-the inexorable momentum of its plot, and the moral complexity of its concerns, Red April is at once riveting and profound, informed as it is by deft artistry in the shaping of conflict between competing venalities. As the New York Times declares, Lima is once again one of Latin America's brightest literary scenes.

"Roncagliolo's stunning debut, about the brutality of Peruvian society under the Fujimori regime, merits comparison to the work of J.M. Coetzee. In 2000, associate district prosecutor Flix Chacaltana Saldvar, who's returned to the province of Ayacucho from Lima, clashes with his superiors after the discovery of a charred and mutilated corpse. Rigidly adhering to bureaucratic procedure, Saldvar demands that an official police report on the crime be filed, despite the active resistance of the police and the local military commander. The prosecutor's refusal to abort his inquiry threatens the official line that the Shining Path terrorists are a thing of the past. Eventually, he's reassigned to help monitor elections, only to encounter more corruption. Within the frame of a puzzling whodunit, Roncagliolo crafts an unsparing view of life controlled by a repressive and paranoid government. A mother fixation, social awkwardness and a desire to impress others lend complexity to the protagonist." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Reminiscent of Roberto Bolano's "The Savage Detectives" comes this chilling, internationally acclaimed political thriller by one of Latin America's most important young writers.

In the wake of Roberto Bolano's The Savage Detectives, a chilling, internationally acclaimed political thriller by one of Latin America's most important young writers.

Mother-haunted, wife-abandoned, literature-loving, quietly eccentric Felix Chacaltana Saldivar is a hapless, by-the-book, unambitious prosecutor living in Lima. Up to this moment, he has lived a life in which nothing particularly good or bad has ever happened to him. But he has just been put in charge of an investigation into a bizarre murder that may be linked to Peru's infamous terrorist group, the Shining Path. As the investigation proceeds, in propulsive twists and turns, Saldivar will be compelled to confront what it means to be moral in a corrupt and brutal society while witnessing what happens to both the individual and society when death becomes the only certainty in life.

Remarkable for the self-assured clarity of its style, the inexorable momentum of its exposition,

and the complexity of its concerns, Red April works brilliantly on the deepest historical, social, and psychological levels. It is an electrifying novel.