An Open Secret

Drawing on the legacy of Argentina's Dirty War, Carlos Gamerro's is a compelling postmodern thriller confronting guilt, complicity and the treachery of language itself.

Dario Ezcurra is one of the thousands of Argentinians unlucky enough to be 'disappeared' by the military government-murdered by the local chief of police with the complicity of his friends and neighbours. Twenty years later, Fefe, a child at the time of the murder, returns to the town where Dario met his fate and attempts to discover how the community let such a crime happen. Lies, excuses and evasion ensue — desperate attempts to deny the guilty secret of which the whole community, even Fefe himself, is afraid.