Death in the Andes

Book excerpt: Three men disappear in the Peruvian Andes where a guerilla group resides, in the Nobel Laureate’s “intriguing political detective story . . . A terrific novel” (Kirkus Reviews). In Death in the Andes, Mario Vargas Llosa returns to the world of Corporal Lituma and his assistant Tomas Correo, last seen in Who Killed Palomino Molero?. Through his chilling tale of mystery, Vargas Llosa weaves an intricate tapestry of stark political realities and age-old Andean mysticism. When three men go missing and are presumed dead, suspicion falls on the Peruvian Marxist group Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path. As Lituma and Correo investigate, they find themselves embroiled in the remote corners of an isolated community, which is itself caught in the web of violent guerrilla warfare. Part detective thriller, part political allegory, Death in the Andes shimmers with an undercurrent of magical realism. The narrative’s panoramic view of Peruvian society illuminates its violent present, deeply entrenched in its rich yet haunting past.