Costantini, Humberto

New York. 1985. August 1985. Harper & Row. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0060153911. Translated from the Spanish by Norman Thomas Di Giovanni. 184 pages. hardcover. Jacket illustration (c) Dagmar Frinta. Jacket design (c) Win Knowlton. keywords: Literature Translated Argentina Latin America . FROM THE PUBLISHER - Argentine Everyman, 41-year-old Francisco Sanctis, is on his way home from work one afternoon in Buenos Aires when he is detoured by a strange scheme. It is November 1977, and Argentina is in the midst of the ‘dirty war,' with its repression, censorship, paramilitary groups, kidnappings, and submerged terror An old girl friend mysteriously reappears and enlists Francisco Sanctis in a mission to contact and warn two innocent youths who are in imminent peril of being kidnapped and probably killed by secret agents of the Air Force. Step by step during the next ten hours, we follow Sanctis - indeed, we are in his skin- along the stations of his via crucis, sharing his conflicts and fantasies, his encounters, and observing Argentine society. Wandering in nocturnal Buenos Aires, all the time longing to be home with his wife and kids, Sanctis struggles a with his dilemma: should he mind his own business or get mixed up with questionable politics? With humor, irony, and on-target sketches of his characters, Argentine writer Humberto Costantini conveys the predicament of the ordinary middle-class man in Argentina, his quest for security, his uneasy conscience, his determination not to get involved and its deadly consequences. Written with a sure hand, Costantini's second novel to be published in English is a powerful and moving, not to say timely, contribution to contemporary Latin American literature. A small gem of a political novel. inventory #28509 ISBN: 0060153911.