The Name of a Bullfighter

This short novel delicately and thoughtfully considers what it means to be a warrior when your war ends. A disparate group of revolutionaries, guerillas, secret police and warriors, some retaining conviction, others without, scheme and tussle over some Second World War loot. Along the way they reflect, and sometimes meet, ghosts of their violent pasts. The plot is clever, if not awe-inspiring, and the ending is slightly rushed, but the elegant, efficient, artful crafting more than makes up for the plots occasional weakness. This books grace lies in its characterization and its thought provoking look at the people who are trained to fight, and who believe in their fight - what happens these washed up redundant souls when the war is over? Political resolutions and truces are reached, but for those in the trenches adjusting to the post-war landscape can be the most difficult thing...

Sepulveda's sparse but gripping story combines noir's thematic treatment of the past as an inescapable albatross with the noir trope...being made offers they can't refuse. When the Berlin Wall comes down, the race is on to trade in secrets from the past and retrieve long-hidden treasures. A mysterious man in a wheelchair enlists an exiled former Chilean revolutionary/guerilla/terrorist to return to his homeland and recover a cache of gold coins stolen by, and then from... Meanwhile, an ex-Stasi officer convinces a down-and-out former underling to do the same. For both men , this is a chance to break free their depressing conditions and make a new start, albeit a carrot with a considerable stick in the wings. As others have pointed out, Sepulveda has the same gift as the French writer Emmanel Carrere for being able to build tension with a bare minimum of plot and exposition. The settings are vivid and contrasting, from a gritty and racist modern Germany reminiscent of Jakob Arjourni's books, to the remote tip of Chile, which has whispers of "Smilla's Sense of Snow." Underlying the basic thriller plot is a somewhat wistful and bitter questioning of the relevance and meaning of radical movements of the 70s and 80s in the post-Cold War era. Indeed the central metaphor of the race for the gold is that everyone in the book is trying to forget the past and make do in a world decidedly more interested in money than ideology.

The book begins on an almost deserted road in Tierra del Feugo, where an old man receives a cryptic note of warning. The old man's past, and the actions which led him to flee to the Tierra del Feugo, have finally caught up with him. From there, the reader is taken to Hamburg, Germany. Juan Belmonte, constantly mistaken for a Turk by his neighbors, is a Chilean revolutionary in exile. One night a mysterious stranger and his ever faithful dog appear at Juan's place of work, a seedy strip club where Juan is the bouncer. Condescendingly summoned to a meeting set for the next day at a Hamburg insurance company, Juan immediately rebuffs the stranger. However, when he is fired from his bouncer job and his neighbors are petitioning to evict "the Turk," Juan decides that it is perhaps time for one more revolutionary-for-hire job, this one set in his native Chile. Meanwhile in Berlin, two former East German Stasi agents are also planning a trip to Chile..........What follows is a suspenseful but always fun adventure. The action is fast paced and the plot is never slow. Although the tone of the book is sarcastic and the characters are satirized, a serious thread also runs through the book, notably the atrocities of the Pinochet regime and Chile's struggle to forget its dark past and focus and a new republic. For this as well as the character of Juan Belmonte, the author has drawn on his experience in exile during Chile's tumultuous period. Altogether it is a fun little caper that is sure to be entertaining.

This book succeeds on the basis of the portrayal of two "losers" - one a former East German spy, the other a former Latin American terrorist. What are seemingly disparate threads are pulled together in a surprising but believable conclusion. A must-read for fans of The Man who Read Love Stories, fans of Emmanuel Carrere . . .