Publisher's Synopsis
A startling new novel from a powerful international voice Published now in 10 countries to extraordinary acclaim and available in English for the first time, The Ballad of Johnny Sosa depicts an ordinary man trying to live out his dreams in a dreary provincial town in central Uruguay while suffocating in the tentacles of military oppression. Every night, Johnny Sosa, a poor, young, black musician, sings melancholic soul music in the small bar in the town's brothel, dreaming of a life beyond his confining world and for a few hours each day ignoring the secretive and oppressive military regime - a dictatorship not so much seen as felt - that has taken over his country. He attracts the attention of the local military leader who uses Sosa for his own political ends, and, for a while, Johnny is permitted to sing and to imagine that he will perform at the national festival, where discovery and success may await him. But, as his friends mysteriously start to disappear, Johnny begins to realize the price of his dream, and he must decide if he will pay it.;The stripped-down quality of its prose, deft ironies, and tragi-comic insight into the strength of human nature under adversity all contribute to the prolonged impact of this penetrating novel from a country now reclaiming its literary tradition. Masterfully subversive and utterly brilliant, The Ballad of Johnny Sosa is a finely honed parable on human dignity.
