Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill: Los pichiciegos (Malvinas Requiem)

The latest addition to my website is Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill‘s Los pichiciegos (Malvinas Requiem)The novel focuses on a group of Argentinian deserters during the Falklands War in 1982. They have managed to hide away underground but are worried about both their own side and the British. They are ruled with a rod of iron by four men known as The Four Kings. They manage to get supplies – food, cigarettes and medical supplies by trading with the locals, their own side and the British. The British, who are far better equipped, give them supplies in exchange for information and even assistance in sabotage, which they generally seem happy to provide,. They know they are going to lose this war and want it to end quickly so they can escape the fearful cold that only the British can tolerate. The war is coming to an end and they cheer when the British bomb the Argentinian ammunition dumps but the ending is not as easy for them as they hoped. Fogwill tells an excellent tale of the futility of war.

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