An Open Secret

A nice sense of place is the most positive thing about renowned Argentinian author Gamerro’s slack and overfed novel, the first of his to be translated into English. Twenty years after the murder of Dario Ezcurra, Felipe Félix, aka Fefe, has returned to Malihuel, the small Argentinian town where he spent childhood summers with his grandparents, in order to research the crime for a forthcoming novel. An infamous ladies’ man and journalist from a well-off family, Ezcurra incited the wrath of the powerful “pampas plutocrat” Rosas Paz and paid for the provocation with his life. Before his death, Police Superintendent Neri had gone about town polling the public regarding his idea to have Ezcurra nixed. Many of those people still live in Malihuel, so Fefe spends most of the book interviewing them at length (emphasis on at length). These people include Professor Alfio Scuppa, who is described as having “a face like a Jackson Pollock done in melanin on parchment” and alcoholic ex-cop Carmen Sayago. Propelled primarily by the dialogue of these interviews, the story often loses momentum. Gamerro has created an interesting group of characters and a potentially compelling plot, but the book too often feels like a barely edited transcript. The author’s reputation in his homeland might lead one to wonder if the merits of the original have been lost in translation. Agent: Antonia Kerrigan Literary Agency (Mar.)