Final Silence
“A sucessful psychologist helping victims of torture gives up his confortable life in the United States to return to his homeland of Guatemala.
On the eve of a peace deal after 30 years of civil war he finds himself treating a battle-hardened military torturer desperate to absolve himself for his heinous crimes… yet well versed in psychological warfare. Final Silence is a compelling drama that explores the emotional wounds caused by torture that blighted a generation.
For the psychologist who fled civil war, the welcome anguish of homecoming scrapes open old emotional wounds. For the general who measures success by the bodycount, the violent transformation from conciliation to reconciliation cuts deep into his psyche. Through the quest for reconciliation takes an unexpected turn as conflict remains just below the surface.
This was Flores’ first novel and won the prestigious Mario Monteforte Toledo literary prize open to writers in Central America.
This is the first novel to deal with the aftermath of Guatemala’s civil war, and one of the first about that conflict translated into English.” (quoted from Aflame Books)
Flores, Ronald. Final Silence. Translated by Gavin O’Toole. London: Aflame Books, 2008. 112 p.
About: Latin American Review of Books
New Internationalist: “Final Silence is a finely modulated meditation on guilt and forgiveness”.
School Library Journal: “This is a fascinating look at the intricacies of that treatment and how Dr. Sandoval resolves the complicated issues both for himself and for his patient. The book is a concise work of well-crafted poetic prose”.
Rain Taxi: “His decision to center Final Silence’s exploration of the aftereffects of terror around the pain of the victimizer is a daring move, one which demonstrates Flores’s courage and imagination”.
To Buy: Aflame Books, Barnes&Nobles, Amazon