Publisher's Synopsis
Castellanos Moya vuelve al personaje de Moronga, su anterior novela, para retratar la paranoia y el desarraigo de un emigrado por la violencia.
Erasmo Aragón sufre un abrupto cambio de vida al quedarse sin trabajo tras ser falsamente acusado de abuso sexual. La tensión que este incidente genera lo lleva a enterrar sus recuerdos. Sometido por los ansiolìticos, deja atrás la persona desinhibida que fue y se transforma en un ser torturado por la paranoia y en permanente estado de alerta. Durante el redescubrimiento de sì mismo conocerá a Joselin, enfermera que trabaja en la clìnica psiquiátrica que sigue su tratamiento y a quien se aferrará como a un clavo ardiendo. Para cortar cualquier conexión con su pasado, Erasmo inicia junto a ella, en Suecia, una nueva vida que se verá sepultada por un alud de insatisfacción y dependencia.
En esta breve pero intensa novela, Horacio Castellanos Moya aborda uno de los temas centrales de su obra: el desarraigo que supone para las personas de varias regiones de Latinoamérica los conflictos allì existentes: personas a quienes la vida les ha sido negada; condenadas, de forma irremediable, a vagar por el mundo. Erasmo Aragón da voz a aquellos que habitan entre dos aguas, con un pie en su patria y el otro en paìses que les resultan hostiles: mientras tratan de mantener cierto equilibrio, la certeza de un hogar se les escapa de las manos.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
Castellanos Moya turns to the character in Moronga, his previous novel, to portray the paranoia and the rootlessness of a man forced to migrate due to violence.
Erasmo Aragón suffers an abrupt shift in his life when he loses his job after being falsely accused of sexual abuse. The strain triggered by this incident drives him to bury his memories. Subdued by his anti-anxiety medication, he leaves behind the disinhibited man he once was and transforms into a paranoid tortured being in a constant state of alertness. During his rediscovery, he will meet Joselin, a nurse working at the psychiatric clinic where he receives treatment, and to whom he clings on to like a red-hot nail. In order to sever all connections to his past, Erasmo starts a new life in Sweden by her side, buried under an avalanche of discontent and dependence.
In this brief but intense novel, Horacio Castellanos Moya tackles one of the key elements in his work: the rootlessness local conflicts pose to people of several regions of Latin America-people who have been denied a life, irreparably condemned to roam the earth. Erasmo Aragón gives a voice to those that dwell between two worlds, with one foot in their homeland and another in countries that turn hostile on them. While they try to find a certain balance, the sureness of a home slips through their fingers.
