At a party in 1970s Chile, Cayetano Brulé meets Pablo Neruda, the great poet and national hero, at the height of his fame. But the elderly poet is full of secrets - one is that he's dying, and he recruits Cayetano to help him resolve another.
And so Cayetano takes on his first case as a private detective to solve Neruda's last great mystery; the young man must travel around the globe and through Neruda's life and past in search of answers. Neruda's hidden agenda is slowly revealed on Cayetano's worldwide whirlwind expedition, which ends back in Chile, where Pinochet's coup plays out against the final revelations of the journey. Set against the fraught politics of pre-Pinochet Chile, and perilous behind-the-wall East Berlin, The Neruda Case spans countries, cultures, and political movements.
Roberto Ampuero's richly atmospheric novels starring the wonderfully rougish detective Cayetano Brulé are an international sensation but have never before been translated into English. Evocative, romantic, and full of intrigue, The Neruda Case is both an intimate glimpse into the life of Pablo Neruda as death approaches and a gripping political thriller that unfolds during the fiercely convulsive end of an era.
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