Novel
Prisionero de guerra
Not translated into English
Augusto Guzmán · 1937
Synopsis
A first-person account, in diary form, of the Chaco conflict as lived by a Bolivian sergeant. The first part tells of the fighting; the second, the heart of the book, of captivity on Paraguayan territory, in camps and haciendas where the prisoners endure servitude, humiliation, abuse, filth and disease, a distress that continues long after the ceasefire.
Context
The book appeared in 1937 in Santiago de Chile, from Nascimento, which had published Augusto Céspedes's Sangre de mestizos the year before. The Chilean review Atenea praised its lively, journalistic style, shot through with lyrical passages, while doubting the truth of certain episodes. Long forgotten, the book was championed in 2019 by the novelist Gonzalo Lema, who recommends it together with Céspedes's to understand this war and would like it in the Bicentennial Library. It has been translated into neither French nor English.
Who it is for
To discover the almost forgotten fate of the thousands of Bolivian soldiers taken prisoner in Paraguay.
Prizes and reception
In 1937 Atenea called it "strong and pleasant", written "with the ink of his own blood"; Gonzalo Lema considers it a book without rival.