The Secret History of Costaguana

For readers familiar with Joseph Conrad, Costaguana will ring a bell: it's the fictitious setting of his novel Nostromo. Following the historical pattern of Vásquez's earlier The Informers, this novel covers about 100 years of Colombian history (a veiled homage to Gabriel García Márquez?), from the birth of the revolutionary Miguel Altamirano in 1820 to Conrad's death in 1924. Miguel's illegitimate son José, the narrator of this story, reunites with his father in Panama, marries and has a daughter named Eloísa, and travels to London, where he meets Conrad and tells him the story of his life and of Colombia. When Nostromo is published, Altamirano recognizes what he had related to Conrad, but his physical presence is missing. When Conrad dies, Altamirano, with delightful literary irony, decides to set the record straight, addressing Eloísa and an unknown jury and interrupting himself frequently to clarify points. The text plays with intertextual literary references; Gauguin and Sarah Bernhardt are but two historical personages who show up in cameo appearances. VERDICT Not all readers have the background to grasp Vásquez's premise, but the descriptions here, particularly of the two attempts to build the Panama Canal, are very entertaining. [See Prepub Alert, 11/29/10.]—Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., OH