The Wind Traveler

"Staggering . . . [A] compulsively readable story of a man's reckoning with a history of violence [and] an essential work of Peruvian literature." ―Publishers Weekly, starred review

 


A seemingly ordinary man named Ángel sells kitchenware at a store in Lima. In the early 1990s, he had served as a soldier, engaging in brutal acts whose aftermath still reverberates. Now he is forced to reckon with his past when a woman he was instructed to kill enters the store and buys a few items.


 


How can she still be alive? What's more, how can she not recognize Ángel? Remarkably, she asks him to deliver her purchases to her house. From this moment, Ángel feels compelled to make amends through any means necessary, even if it requires sacrificing his life of quiet retirement. A stirring tribute to the wounded souls who yearn to make peace with the past, The Wind Traveler offers a new vision of the fragile human connections that sustain a deeply fractured world.


 


"A lyrical novel about loss and atonement . . . Cueto's scenes and descriptions are tactile and immediate, conveying subtext and deeper meaning." ―Foreword Reviews