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    Affections: A Novel
    Affections: A Novel
    Affections: A Novel
    Audiobook2 hours

    Affections: A Novel

    Written by Rodrigo Hasbun

    Narrated by Rudy Sanda and Rebecca Mitchell

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Inspired by real events, Affections is the story of the eccentric, fascinating Ertl clan, headed by the egocentric and extraordinary Hans, once the cameraman for the Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. Shortly after the end of World War II, Hans and his family flee to Bolivia to start over. There, the ever-restless Hans decides to embark on an expedition in search of the fabled lost Inca city of Paititi, enlisting two of his daughters to join him on his outlandish quest into the depths of the Amazon, with disastrous consequences.

    Set against the backdrop of the both optimistic and violent 1950s and 1960s, Affections traces the Ertls's slow and inevitable breakdown through the various erratic trajectories of each family member: Hans's undertakings of colossal, foolhardy projects and his subsequent spectacular failures; his daughter Monika, heir to his adventurous spirit, who joins the Bolivian Marxist guerrillas and becomes known as "Che Guevara's avenger"; and his wife and two younger sisters left to pick up the pieces in their wake. In this short but powerful work, Hasbún weaves a masterfully layered tale of how a family's voyage of discovery ends up eroding the affections that once held it together.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    TranslatorSophie Hughes
    Release dateSep 12, 2017
    ISBN9781681688442
    Author

    Rodrigo Hasbun

    Rodrigo Hasbún is a Bolivian novelist living and working in Houston. In 2007, he was selected by the Hay Festival as one of the best Latin American writers under the age of thirty-nine for Bogotá39, and in 2010 he was named one of Granta’s Best Young Spanish-Language Novelists. He is the author of a previous novel and a collection of short stories, two of which have been made into films, and his work has appeared in Granta, McSweeney’s, Zoetrope: All-Story, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. Affections received an English PEN Award and has been published in twelve languages.

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    Reviews for Affections

    3.5/5

    32 ratings3 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This book was short, but it sure packs a lot of punch. This is the story of a family falling apart piece by piece. The story is told in different view points, but it works very well.
    • 5/5
      This is a stunning gem of a spare novel that delivers a punch through a turning of a phrase and the emotional intensity of the multiple narrators. I was attracted to this book by its photograph-like cover and the anticipation of reading a story set primarily in Bolivar. While the storyline is steeped in politics hovering in the background, it is the emotional turbulence of the characters as revealed by the narrators about themselves and other characters that had me intrigued as I read this this book in one sitting. Inspired by the lives of the Ertl family after the fled to Bolivia to start over after the collapse of Nazi Germany, the tumultuous times in Bolivia fueled the dynamics the unsettled family into unexpected directions apart from each other. A powerful testament to the times and expectations told with precision and poise that grabs the reader from start to finish. Looking forward to reading more by Rodrigo Hasbun.
    • 3/5
      A German family emigrating to South America shortly after Worl War II. Hans, a famous film-maker and alpinist who had worked with Leni Riefenstahl, his wife and the three girls Monika, Heidi and Trixi. The father wants to explore the new world, Monika and Heidi accompany him, but they cannot find the lost Inca city. Soon after, the life of the family falls apart. The father is travelling the world, Monika gets married and Heidi is returning to Europe. Only Trixi remains with the mother who is already suffering from cancer and finds her death in the 1950s. The girls’ lives and interests couldn’t hardly differ more. Heidi leads a traditional life in Germany, Trixi is somehow forlorn in Bolivia and Monika has become a fierce supporter of Che Guevara and the guerrillas in South America. Rodrigo Hasbún, one of the major Spanish-speaking voices in contemporary literature, has based his novel on the true story of the Ertl family. It is supposed that Monika Ertl was to avenger of Che Guevara’s death: in 1971, Bolivia’s ambassador Roberto Quintanilla Pereira was killed in his office in Hamburg by a woman who is supposed to have been her. Off all things, Monika was her father’s beloved child of in whom he saw his only true heiress. Monika’s life a most intriguing considering the close connection to the Nazi regime, then her fight with and for the guerrilla, the assassination ascribed to her and her death in the Bolivian jungle. Yet, the novel could not really catch me. The characters remain too distant, too vague to really become fascinating and captivating. I would have liked to get in Monika’s head, to learn how she develops her ideals and her conviction for the fight. But also the others are too distant for me to really get interested in their life and emotions and thoughts. Apart from the rather shallow characters, the story is centred around the family life. Yet, there are too many leaps in time, too many gaps unfilled to create a complete picture. When Heidi leaves for Germany, her story is lost. Why Trixi is so much detached from the world, remains unclear to me. And the father’s end of career is explained in just one or two sentences. All in all, an interesting historical figure who could have translated into a great story, but the novel is a bit too superficial in many respects to really convince me.