The Letters

Summary

Tony’s quiet life with his partner in San Francisco is disrupted when an old medical folder is delivered from Argentina. Then, an email arrives. It’s Izzy, an estranged niece in Patagonia. She has news of her father’s death and questions Tony's absence. Tony is discovering that much of what he knows about his family is built on lies. Izzy's email demands a response, and the folder demands the truth. He spent years speaking for the dead as a journalist during Argentina's Dirty War, then traveling the world as a DNA specialist, but it was always someone else’s family. He sifts through his memories and begins typing the family saga to his niece. Tony taps a story about his immigrant family who settled in the bucolic Patagonian valley. A story that eventually moves to the war-time streets of Buenos Aires.

The Letters is a historical novel but it's more than a family saga. It’s a cautionary tale about populist politics that turn authoritarian. They preached God, family, and property while escalating struggles around race, class, and sexual identity. And, The Letters is about the secrets we keep.