WITH DARK UNDERSTANDINGS

A man who wishes to right the wrongs of his military-controlled country seeks the leadership of his party in Chowdhury’s political novel.

During the summer of 1975, Andres Orce—a member of parliament in an unnamed country—vacations with his university roommate and his family on a rural island property. During the visit, Andres begins having nightmares of the kind he used to get back in school, which will persist and become one of the mysteries of the novel. While playing in the woods, Andres’ daughters and the visiting children discover pieces of glass, which in turn lead Andres to uncover a previously unknown mass grave. He contacts the military—the de facto rulers of the country—about the discovery, but when they come to investigate it, Andres sees them murder an old man in cold blood. Andres is just then running for the leadership of the opposition party, the Liberal Socialists. The prospect of defeat weighs heavily upon him. “What if he did not win the leadership election? What if things between him and [his wife] Allegra never returned to how they once were? What if his country ended up crippled forever because he failed? What if? What if? What if?” The problem is that Andres has acted rather independently as of late. As a result, the party higher-ups are understandably reluctant to reward his insubordination. As if intraparty rivalries weren’t enough, Andres must always fear the very real possibility of assassination. Chowdhury explores decades of political upheaval in the country—which resembles Spain, though it is never identified as such—and demonstrates how they weigh on Andres’ own moment in history. Unfortunately, the author’s prose is stilted and frequently ungrammatical: “It was a rare sight. Even for Irina, to see her sister Iris (who was often arrogantly irresponsible), express any opinion, so the fact that she did so was very notable. It gave confidence to the twin that they were dutifully handling something of a calamity together.” Nearly the entire story is told as exposition, which makes the already dry subject matter quite a bit drier. Chowdhury clearly means to educate with this political fable, but the reader loses interest long before the story gets going.

A subtle meditation on political bravery that suffers from its unpolished prose.