The Suicide Museum

Was Chilean president Salvador Allende’s death during the 1973 military coup a murder or a suicide? That real-life historical inquiry animates this engrossing work of autofiction from Dorfman (Death and the Maiden). In 1990, enigmatic Dutch billionaire Joseph Hortha commissions protagonist Ariel Dorfman—an Argentine Chilean author and activist living in exile in the U.S. who bears a more than passing resemblance to the author—to dig into Allende’s fate. Ostensibly, Hortha craves the information as part of the secretive project he’s planning as “a wake-up call to humanity,” but it’s clear to Dorfman, spinning the tale three decades later, that the puzzle holds a far more personal meaning for Hortha. It certainly does for Dorfman, an Allende associate who, but for a last-minute change of plans, was scheduled to be at the president’s side on the day of the coup and would likely have died as well. The ensuing odyssey wends its way from Santiago to the Chilean hinterlands, North Carolina to London, as Dorfman delves into dark truths about Chile’s past as well as his own, and gradually unearths some of Hortha’s secrets en route. Less a conventional thriller than an erudite riddle that gracefully melds history and fiction, this feels like the capstone to Dorfman’s literary career. It’s a brainy, dazzling treat. Agent: Jacqueline Ko, Wylie Agency. (Sept.)