Perla /

*Starred Review* Historically based on a recent, dark chapter in Argentina's history, De Robertis' latest novel centers on Perla Correa, a university student and daughter of a decorated naval officer in Buenos Aires. Having learned young that her powerfully loving father was on the wrong side of an unpopular regime, Perla, with the knowing confidence of a bright psychology student, has long repressed shame and guilt for the part she must intuit that her father played in displacing the nation's desaparecidos: thousands who vanished and were never heard from again. In the book's opening pages, Perla is surprised by a mysterious, dripping-wet intruder who has appeared in her living room without opening a door or dislocating a windowpane, a strange guest who can't initially speak and asks only for water, which he chews hungrily. As the man discovers where he is and remembers where he has come from, water seeps from his skin, and Perla is drawn to tenderly care for him without, at first, understanding why. Lyrically combining into reality both the fantastic and the horrific, De Robertis weaves a beautiful and plain-faced tale about birth, rebirth, and the responsibility of inheritance from complex, startling history. High-Demand Backstory: The author's debut novel, The Invisible Mountain (2009), was an international best-seller and an O, The Oprah Magazine 2009 Terrific Read. --Bostrom, Annie Copyright 2010 Booklist

Following her successful fiction debut, Invisible Mountain, De Robertis tackles the lingering repercussions of the state-sponsored disappearances of political dissidents that characterized Argentina's late-1970s dirty war. In March 2001, while 22-year-old Perla Correa's parents are on vacation, a naked man, smelling like "fish and copper and rotting apples," materializes in her living room in an affluent Buenos Aires suburb, and Perla finds herself drawn to him. Over several days, he recalls the life he shared with his pregnant wife-a life that ended when he was abducted more than two decades earlier. As she listens, Perla laments her recent breakup with a kindhearted journalist who suspected that she herself might have been stolen from disappeared parents, a possibility that Perla has never wondered about, or "more accurately, I had, but the wondering barely left an imprint on my conscious memory, it had been as rapid as a blink." Perla neglects her friends and studies to spend time with the stranger, whose stories speak to her long dormant search for identity. She struggles for truth as she sorts through the shards of Argentina's shattered history, piecing together the painful fragments that may rightfully be hers. This ambitious narrative, largely told in flashbacks, is propulsive and emotionally gripping. De Robertis's lyrical flights are grounded in the fulfillment of the most desperate wishes of disappeared parents and their children, culminating in a wrenching catharsis about rebirth and healing. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

While house-sitting for her well-to-do parents, Buenos Aires college student Perla Correa is confronted by a strange intruder. Having recently ended a serious relationship with Gabriel when his well--intentioned prying into her family background became threatening, Perla is now forced to examine the role her father, a high-ranking military officer, played in Argentina's horrific state-sponsored terror of the 1970s-80s, as well as her mother's complicity. Perla's journey intersects with the fate of thousands of "the disappeared" (los desaparecidos) as she pores over the clues to her family's past and realizes the way to her own future. A translator, short fiction writer, and novelist-her debut, The Invisible Mountain, was an international best seller-De Robertis skillfully weaves a lyrical voice around her characters that treats victims, perpetrators, and bystanders with the same care and honesty. The result is a powerfully humanizing effort that examines a nation struggling with a very dark, recent past. VERDICT Highly recommended for all fiction enthusiasts, particularly those interested in Latin and South American issues; read with works like Marie Arana's Cellophane and Laura Restrepo's Delirium and No Place for Heroes. [See Prepub Alert, 9/11/11.]-Jenn B. Stidham, Houston Community Coll.-Northeast, TX (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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