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>