Purgatory

<p>Simón Cardoso has been dead for thirty years when his wife, Emilia Dupuy, finds him in a New Jersey diner. Testimonies confirmed that Simón had been one of the thousands of victims of Argentina's military regime, executed for being a 'subversive'; yet this man is identical to the man she lost three decades ago. While skirting around the mystery, Eloy Martínez masterfully peels away layer upon layer of history - both personal and political. And just as Simón's disappearance comes to represent the thousands of disappearances that were such a common occurrence during the dictatorship, so Emilia's refusal to accept his death mirrors the country's unwillingness to face its reality.<br><br> The final work of the late Martínez, <i>Purgatory</i> is his most moving, most autobiographical novel.</p>