READING THE KNOTS

A group of people from different walks of life attempt to conduct an archeological dig during a period of civil unrest in Garzon’s debut literary novel.

Guatemala, 1954. Outside the highland town of Chayaka, Portuguese archeologist Pablo Fuente excavates the Valley of Los Ancianos. The Chayakans are not thrilled with the idea of this foreigner disturbing the home of their ancestors, but at least it has meant jobs for some of the impoverished villagers. As the discoveries become more promising, Pablo increasingly shuts out his American wife, Meg, from the dig. She, in turn, fills her time with the left-wing group known by the acronym PROC—a political organization that supports the rights of the workers and peasants who make up the country’s vast underclass—and with one of its leaders, Sergio. Eighteen-year-old Patricia Baldt Contreras is a local aspiring archeologist who desperately wants to help excavate the site. She must hide her plans from her father, a reactionary coffee farmer who is afraid that the progressive government will give away his land to the poor. When the diggers unearth human bones at the site, controversy threatens to end Pablo’s search. As they all soon discover, however, history is not dead in the ground: It is erupting around them. Garzon’s deliberative prose paints the characters with precision and complexity: “[Meg] photographed, sketched, and cataloged artifacts, and her intuitions were sound. She had assured Patricia that she, Pablo, and the workers all contributed equally to the success of the dig, but the girl had clearly figured out how marginalized Meg was. An appendage.” The novel does an excellent job rooting its characters and events within the context of Guatemala before an American-backed coup, and it features some fun historical fiction flourishes. (Ernesto “Che” Guevara is a supporting character.) The plot develops slowly, but the writing keeps the reader engaged. It is an immersive story not only of the tension between cultures, but of the roles that women often find themselves trapped in, and the risks they take in order to escape them.

An engaging novel that digs deep into mid-20th-century Guatemala.