Against the backdrop of the tumultuous '70s and '80s in Argentina, Pauls tells the story of his protagonist's life and his country's history, through one potent lens: money, gained and lost. Argentina, the 70s. The syndicates have been taken over by the radicalised left wing, the industrial belt of Buenos Aires is now referred to as the red belt, and a top executive of an iron and steel company dies after his helicopter, travelling towards the factory, plummets into the river. The briefcase full of money which he was carrying disappears without a trace.

Author Biography

Born in Buenos Aires in 1959, Alan Pauls is a novelist, as well as a film and literary critic and essayist. He has worked as a professor of literary theory at the University of Buenos Aires and an editor for the daily paper "Pagina/12." He also founded the magazine "Lecturas criticas." His novel The Past received the prestigious Herralde Prize in 2003 and was made into a movie starring Gael Garcia Bernal. Ellie Robins is a translator from Spanish and has worked in publishing in the US and the UK.