THE COUNTRY OF TOÓ

Corruption—personal, political, institutional—is at the core of acclaimed Guatemalan novelist Rey Rosa's tale of a half-baked plot to kill a leading human rights activist.

The young would-be hit man, Rafael, known as the Cobra, is the illegitimate son of an investigating judge in the El Salvador city of Sonsonate, where the boy grew up on the street and collected debts for a local gang. To get him out of sight, his image-conscious father gets him a job in Guatemala as bodyguard and driver for wealthy fixer Don Emilio Carrión, who facilitates illicit deals between the government and multinational companies. Polo Yrrarraga, the bellicose human rights activist, has been causing trouble with his verbal attacks on predatory miners in Toó, an unprotected communal center of Mayan culture in the lush western highlands. With his vague sense of morality, the Cobra has no problem with silencing him—until he starts listening to what Polo says and, of all things, becomes friends with him. Though set against a backdrop of political assassinations—of schoolteachers and students as well as politicians—the novel finds uplift in the efforts of people to live their lives in spite of the chronic violence. The landscape of mountains and ravines, “as though painted in watercolour,” plays a huge role in their collective sense of identity, which makes its destruction all the more painful. Though the book sometimes stalls with its elliptical approach and slippery sense of focus, its sly humor helps make up for that. Among the secondary characters are the Bore (a Borges aficionado and “anarchist blogger”) and Spam (a former publicist).

A deep, satirically streaked dive into the violent culture of Guatemala.