ODYSSEY TO THE NORTH

A heartfelt story of political oppression and exile from the Salvadoran author of A Shot in the Dark: Stories of the Civil War and The Tree of Life. In a simple omniscient narrative fleshed out with various documentary devices (such as newspaper stories, court transcripts, and letters home), Bencastro tells the affecting tale of Calixto, designated an enemy of El Salvador’s ruling elite, who escapes to Washington, D.C., only to find in that citadel of freedom a pervasive racism no less cruel than the more open hostility rampant in his homeland. Bencastro’s directness and understated compassion make Calixto’s disillusionment credible and quite moving.