Luque flees. Like everyone else, he leaves a past behind, but his is a traumatic one that hounds and ties him down. It is a voracious past that at times casts doubt on his memories, altering them with ominous visions of dark and persistent phantoms. He hopes to put all that behind him and start a new life in Asunción, Paraguay, where he has a cousin who will lend him a hand. Distrust, the resurrection of unwelcome family stories, and a threatening sense of danger, thwart that possibility. He ends up in Ciudad del Este, a city with plenty of job opportunities for making a good living. A borderland where laws are lax and homicide is a common resolution, a veritable paradise for refugees and fugitives short on morals.

He seeks to overcome the oppression that has haunted him for much too long, an intense sense of duplicity, an ineffable nightmare. He settles down, or so it seems. A young woman comes into his life and something like love. He assumes he has found a home, and yet assumptions can be more promising than reality. A noir thriller with oneiric elements, Winter’s Fury is an impeccably written novel, superbly translated by Rhonda Dahl Buchanan. With a stark prose and precise plot, Perla Suez spins a compelling tale that revolves around the life of her dark and enigmatic protagonist, Luque. A relentless read that offers no respite until the final page, with its unexpected and powerful twist.