Novel
El último juego
Not translated into English
Gloria Guardia · 1977
Synopsis
The day after a hostage-taking, Tito Garrido, a banker from a family of the Panamanian oligarchy who is charged with negotiating a canal treaty with the United States, crosses Panama over the course of one day. A commando of student guerrillas held some thirty prominent figures in his home, in a residence in Obarrio, for more than sixty hours, before being flown to Libya. While he waits to be received by the country's military leader, he ruminates on his past and addresses Mariana, glimpsed the day before, in his thoughts.
Context
The novel, awarded in 1976 the Central American novel prize of the university publishers of Central America, appeared in 1977 in San José, Costa Rica. It was translated into Russian in 1981, reissued in 1999 in the Biblioteca de la Nacionalidad, then by Alfaguara in 2009 or 2010 depending on the sources. It opens the Maramargo trilogy, completed by Lobos al anochecer (2006) and El jardín de las cenizas (2011). The journal Mediations reads in it the alliance of the Panamanian merchant oligarchy with the military regime of Omar Torrijos.
Who it is for
In Spanish, translated into Russian but never into French; a long interior monologue, without guidance, best approached knowing the Torrijos-Carter treaties, signed in 1977.
Prizes and reception
Crowned by a Central American jury before it was even published, the novel has run to four editions in a little over thirty years.
Sources for this page 2
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