Novel
El ahogado
Not translated into English
Tristán Solarte · 1957
Synopsis
In a small town on the Caribbean coast, Rafael, a seventeen-year-old boy, poet, painter and singer, is found murdered. Doctor Martínez, the only physician in the place and his friend, questions those who knew him, and each testimony sheds a different light on this enigmatic figure. The narrative links the victim to the Panamanian legend of the Tulivieja and goes back over the region's past, the prosperity of the United Fruit banana plantations and the lives of the humblest people.
Context
The manuscript received the Ricardo Miró prize for the novel in 1954, according to La Prensa and the site devoted to the author, the jury praising a poem-novel; the book appeared in Panama in 1957, in 281 pages, then in a second version in Buenos Aires in 1962. Ernesto Sábato praised it. The novel combines a detective investigation with moral meditation, and multiplies points of view on an enigmatic character. Maurice Serrat translated it into French under the title Le Noyé, published by Casterman, in 1964.
Who it is for
In Spanish or in the French translation of 1964, hard to find; it is best to know that the Tulivieja is a figure of Panamanian popular belief.
Prizes and reception
Ricardo Miró Prize, translated into French two years after its second version, and regarded as its author's most popular work.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.