Affections

This is a stunning gem of a spare novel that delivers a punch through a turning of a phrase and the emotional intensity of the multiple narrators. I was attracted to this book by its photograph-like cover and the anticipation of reading a story set primarily in Bolivar. While the storyline is steeped in politics hovering in the background, it is the emotional turbulence of the characters as revealed by the narrators about themselves and other characters that had me intrigued as I read this this book in one sitting. Inspired by the lives of the Ertl family after the fled to Bolivia to start over after the collapse of Nazi Germany, the tumultuous times in Bolivia fueled the dynamics the unsettled family into unexpected directions apart show more from each other. A powerful testament to the times and expectations told with precision and poise that grabs the reader from start to finish. Looking forward to reading more by Rodrigo Hasbun. show less

I bought this book because I'd never read a Bolivian book, and reading the first page I loved the voice and all the questions the text immediately opened up. I was not disappointed, in fact the book has many voices which are just distinguished enough to allow you to piece together who is who in the family and which one of them is speaking. The skill of the writer and translator (Sophie Hughes) is in having you feel you know all of the characters despite the book being only 140 pages long. This could have been told as a sprawling family saga, but the author has decided to pare it done to its essentials and the book is all the more beautiful for that.

The story is based on real people -- the German Ertl family living in Bolivia in the show more middle of the 20th century -- and if I had any criticism it would be that you will probably gain more from reading the book plot-wise if you are prepared to find out a little of the background of the country and the characters. That said, it is pretty fascinating background to learn about and I spent a happy hour browsing wikipedia and youtube.

All in all, great characterisation and writing which needs a little work from the reader, but which is well rewarded. show less

I struggled with this short book. A Nazi photographer moves with his family to Bolivia, where he’s keen on making a documentary of his trek to find a lost city in the jungle. He variously takes 1 or 2 of his 3 daughters. We hear the story from the daughters’ points of view. Most dramatically, 1 daughter, Monica becomes a rebel supporting Che Guevara’s cause. Her whereabouts and safety are always an issue of concern for her sisters. Unless I missed it, there is no conclusion because there is no plot. This may be a me-thing and listening to it may have just left me confused, and bored. Being a very short story, I just stuck it out hoping it would all come together. It didn’t. Or I just missed it.

A German family emigrating to South America shortly after Worl War II. Hans, a famous film-maker and alpinist who had worked with Leni Riefenstahl, his wife and the three girls Monika, Heidi and Trixi. The father wants to explore the new world, Monika and Heidi accompany him, but they cannot find the lost Inca city. Soon after, the life of the family falls apart. The father is travelling the world, Monika gets married and Heidi is returning to Europe. Only Trixi remains with the mother who is already suffering from cancer and finds her death in the 1950s. The girls’ lives and interests couldn’t hardly differ more. Heidi leads a traditional life in Germany, Trixi is somehow forlorn in Bolivia and Monika has become a fierce supporter show more of Che Guevara and the guerrillas in South America.

Rodrigo Hasbún, one of the major Spanish-speaking voices in contemporary literature, has based his novel on the true story of the Ertl family. It is supposed that Monika Ertl was to avenger of Che Guevara’s death: in 1971, Bolivia’s ambassador Roberto Quintanilla Pereira was killed in his office in Hamburg by a woman who is supposed to have been her. Off all things, Monika was her father’s beloved child of in whom he saw his only true heiress.

Monika’s life a most intriguing considering the close connection to the Nazi regime, then her fight with and for the guerrilla, the assassination ascribed to her and her death in the Bolivian jungle. Yet, the novel could not really catch me. The characters remain too distant, too vague to really become fascinating and captivating. I would have liked to get in Monika’s head, to learn how she develops her ideals and her conviction for the fight. But also the others are too distant for me to really get interested in their life and emotions and thoughts.

Apart from the rather shallow characters, the story is centred around the family life. Yet, there are too many leaps in time, too many gaps unfilled to create a complete picture. When Heidi leaves for Germany, her story is lost. Why Trixi is so much detached from the world, remains unclear to me. And the father’s end of career is explained in just one or two sentences.

All in all, an interesting historical figure who could have translated into a great story, but the novel is a bit too superficial in many respects to really convince me. show less

Desire to read more widely in 2020 brought me to this novel by the young Bolivian author Rodrigo Hasbún, published in a translation by Sophie Hughes by Pushkin Press. Family saga meets political history in this turbulent story of three German-Bolivian sisters, their complex relationship with their father, and their growth to maturity in the violent years of the 1960s and 1970s. My knowledge of South American history at this period is embarrassingly patchy, despite an early teenage flirtation with Che Guevara, and so I learned a great deal from Hasbún’s book in that respect (more, as it turned out, than I realised!). As a novel, however, it feels strangely restrained – told through vignettes, there is much left unsaid and it show more feels more like flicking through a family photo album than a real chance to get to know these three very different women.

For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2020/01/15/affections-rodrigo-hasbun/ show less

This book was short, but it sure packs a lot of punch. This is the story of a family falling apart piece by piece. The story is told in different view points, but it works very well.