Sergio Ramírez

This is Nicaragua in the 21st century. The country is experiencing civil unrest, brutally suppressed by a totalitarian government whose executive arm is the head of the secret service, nicknamed Tongolele. Inspector Morales clashes with this dreaded manipulator who pulls the many strings of the regime’s policy in cold blood and partly on the advice of his mother’s oracles. The novel, currently banned in Nicaragua, gradually reveals the dark and bizarre behind the scenes of power, full of secrets, betrayals, and dirty intrigues, which Morales must confront with the support of his loyal companions. Every move can be wrong in a turbulent and unpredictable country, and those who oppose power risk falling into an abyss.

Published by Bourdon, 2023

Sergio Ramírez Mercado (*1942) is a Nicaraguan writer who served as vice president of the leftist Sandinista government under President Daniel Ortega from 1984 to 1990. However, after Ortega’s return to power in 2006, he became a fierce critic of Ortega, earning himself an arrest warrant from the authoritarian regime, which forced him into exile for a second time to neighbouring Costa Rica. He recently had all his assets confiscated in his home country and lost his Nicaraguan citizenship. He received many prestigious awards for his literary work, including the Cervantes Prize in 2017.