Resistance

Fuks’s ruminative English-language debut follows a family living in Brazil after having fled the Argentinian dictatorship in the 1970s. The unnamed narrator, born after his parents adopted a son, relates how his brother struggled with his identity as an adopted child. There’s also the struggle of his parents, forced to escape Argentina as members of the antigovernment resistance in the 1970s. The introspective narrative moves between blurred, disjointed family memories­—some true, some invented—often leaving readers on shaky footing. Nevertheless, readers gradually piece together stories: the murder of the narrator’s mother’s colleague at the hospital due to “anti-government actions,” the break-in and destruction of his father’s office by government militia, and, finally, the family’s escape to Brazil. Readers also slowly see a connection between the story of his brother’s adopted identity struggle and that of his parents’ displacement. Hundreds of babies of parents killed by Argentina’s military dictatorship were given new families and identities, their true origins kept a secret. Could his brother be one of these children? Fuk’s work, while challenging in form, comes together in a powerful way. This is a thoughtful novel about identity and exile. (Nov.)