Return To The Corner Of The Dead
by
Book Details
About the Book
This is a story of love and action drawn on a
backdrop of revolutionary violence. The
novel is set in Peru in 1993 when the country is recovering from a long,
brutal, still simmering civil war. The
protagonist, Jim Hiram, has returned to Peru at the request of an old friend, a
collector of pre-Columbian antiquities, who has a job for him locating a
special artifact. Jim had worked as a
financial planner in Lima until 1985 when he left after the Sendero Luminoso guerrilla
movement brought the war to the capital from its sierra stronghold of Ayacucho,
the ‘Corner of The Dead’. He expects
his return to be a short-term venture, but he is drawn into a spiraling series
of complications and intrigues. He is
also drawn into love. Against the dark
wine red canvas, the somber shade of dried blood, is set the bright fuchsia of
renewing love. Through the maze of a
society reeling on the edge of disintegration, Jim makes his way by his wit and
his words. As another character
observes, he is a ‘smooth liar’, but there are no lies when it comes to love
and its regenerative power for him.
About the Author
The author lived for two years in Peru, which is the
setting for most of Return To The Corner Of The Dead. He resided in a pueblo joven or squatters’
settlement in Arequipa, where he taught English at the Instituto Cultural
Peruano-Norteamericano and played for the sporting Moral basketball club. He also lived for some time in Lima and
Ayacucho and traveled in the altiplano region of Peru and Bolivia. The author received his B.A. from Yale
College, studying History of the English Language with Dr. Borroff, Fiction
with Dr. Fayen and Dr. Demetz, and English Romantic and modern poetry with Dr.
Bloom. He received his J.D. from
Indiana University and has practiced law in the U.S. for many years.