Archeology and astronomy, history and legend, intimate detail and public policy, relics from 50,000 years ago and mass graves from three decades ago are joined in this compelling trek. Throughout the three-week trip, Dorfman the human rights activist foregrounds the figure of the desaparecido as he searches for 'the disappeared body' of his friend Freddy Taberna. The playwright, a keen listener, lets diverse others tell much of the tale, including a 'gathering of elderly pampinos,' novelist Hernán Rivera Letelier and archeologist Lautaro Núñez.

Dorfman the journalist weaves encyclopedic information into his text (e.g., facts on Monte Verde, possibly 'the oldest settlement ever discovered in the Americas'), while Dorfman the poet gives color to the desert ('a dizzying array of browns and grays and terra-cottas') and vitality to places like Pampa Unión, once 'a town of brothels and bars, opium dens and gambling joints, a town only visited now by the whirlwinds and the shifting sands.' As Angélica searches for truths about her family history, Dorfman the novelist unravels the labyrinthine tale along with her. In recounting his journey 'to the origins,' Dorfman brings elements from his broad range as a writer. S-Recommended for senior high school students.Prolific Chilean writer Dorfman and his wife, Angélica, travel north from Santiago, Chile, through the world's driest desert, the Atacama, an area where two millimeters of rain can cause a deadly mudslide. In the end, Heller finds himself changed by the events of the summer, with new confidence and a new understanding and appreciation of others.Ĭo-written by playwright Ariel Dorfman (Death and the Maiden) and his son, who was a teenager at the time, this unusual but compelling and intensely charged urban drama was originally published in Great Britain. When one of Heller's new friends, an illegal immigrant named Salim, is badly beaten by a brutal cop and then disappears from the hospital, Heller mobilizes his friends to search for Salim, confronting the melting pot of Manhattan in the melting heat. He dreams of winning bike races, makes some unexpected new friends, and falls in love with beautiful Silvia, only to find he's too afraid to deliver bad news to her. S To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, May 2005: It's the scorching summer of 2001 in New York City, and 16-year-old Heller is working as a messenger for a company named Soft Tidings, zooming all over Manhattan at top speed on his bike and delivering news with 'a personal touch.' Heller is especially good at gently delivering bad news, and he encounters all kinds of strange characters in the course of his work.

Burning City by Ariel Dorfman