Guillermo Orsi
Translator Nick Caistor
'Wonderfully evocative and cynical, it captures Buenos Aires with a delicate precision - you can hear the tango as you turn the pages' Geoffrey Wansell, The Daily Mail.
'Dazzling... Orsi's mordant, reluctant detective is definitely a one-off' Joan Smith, The Times.
'From the halcyon time of Dashiell Hammett onwards, the detective story has been pressed into service for a pitiless dissection of a corrupt society; Orsi shows that the strategy still has plenty of mileage' Barry Forshaw, Independent.
'...fast-moving, cynical, and witty ... Chandlerian in its steamy narrative, the story is about a country and its people going nowhere very fast indeed ... Set against a backdrop of Argentina in meltdown, it is a strongly atmospheric novel ... Of course, he [Guillermo Orsi] writes like a journalist - immediate, living prose that reads as though it was written yesterday' Bookgroup Info, Paula McMaster.
It is December 2001, and Argentina is in economic meltdown. While the country wallows in corruption, cynicism and indifference, Gotán, an ex-cop from the Federal Police, lives in the past. He cannot forget the beguiling woman who briefly set alight his life - she disappeared as soon as he revealed he had worked for the 'National Shame'.
Gotán is called urgently late one night to a friend's coastal retreat. He arrives too late: his friend is dead and his girlfriend has vanished. Using all his resources to find the girl, Gotán finds himself embroiled in a plot that goes to the heart of Argentina itself. Though no longer part of the force, Gotán is still a cop by nature. But his is a dangerous undertaking: after all, no-one loves a policeman.
Guillermo Orsi was born in Buenos Aires, where he still lives and works as a journalist. His previous novel Sueños de perro won the Semana Negra Umbriel Award in 2004.
Nick Caistor's many translations from the Spanish include The Buenos Aires Quintet by Manuel Vázquez Montalban and the works of Juan Marsé and Alan Pauls.
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