Description

---

Bolivia’s preeminent fiction writer eclipses the successful English translation of American Visa with a riveting murder mystery. Translated by Adrian Althoff.

“More Camus than mystery thriller, [Andean Express] delights like strong coffee savored in a cosmopolitan cafe.” —Publishers Weekly

Set in 1952, Andean Express is the story of a tragic overnight train journey that unfolds in an environment at once carnivalesque and sinister. Beginning near La Paz, Bolivia, the austere Andean plateau serves as a surreal backdrop for most of the trip before giving way to a winding descent to the Chilean coast. Ricardo Beintigoitia, a recent high school graduate from a prosperous La Paz family, unwittingly becomes ensnared in the personal drama of one of his peers, a captivating girl named Gulietta Carletti who has been forced into an arranged marriage with a man she despises.

On the Andean Express, everybody wants something and no one is exactly who he seems. Recacoechea’s lean, elegant prose crackles with sharp dialogue and entertaining exchanges among a disparate cast of characters, each with his own ax to grind. The train is a microcosm of Bolivia itself, with people from all walks of life, from peasants to politicians, forming a circus of personalities and intrigue in which tragedy seems inevitable, and improbable liaisons become reality.

About the Author

---

JUAN DE RECACOECHEA (1935-2017) was born in La Paz, Bolivia, and worked as a journalist in Europe for almost twenty years. After returning to his native country, he helped found Bolivia’s first state-run television network and dedicated himself to fiction writing. He's the author of the novels American Visa, which won Bolivia’s National Book Prize and was adapted into an award-winning film, and Andean Express. Both American Visa and Andean Express were translated into English and published by Akashic Books.

Adrian Althoff is a freelance journalist and translator.

Praise For…

---

It takes a gutsy publisher like Akashic to bring the works of the Bolivian novelist Juan De Recacoechea into English. Subtle, nuanced, elegantly styled and beautifully translated by Adrian Althoff, Andean Express is a great introduction to this gifted author’s work . . . It’s the interchange between the characters that’s at the heart of this novel. De Recacoechea has touches of the old noir masters like Jim Thompson, but the voice is uniquely his . . .

— Globe and Mail (Canada)

This spare, quirky book freezes an unexpected moment: forty-eight hours in the intertwined lives of a dozen beautifully realized characters aboard a moving train. Andean Express gets quietly under your skin like the almost-unnoticed rhythm of the rails.

— S.J. Rozan, author of The Shanghai Moon

Bolivia’s heir to the classic noir of Jim Thompson and Raymond Chandler, Juan de Recacoechea writes with a cold eye for the dark details. He straps you to your chair with braided tales of a simmering vengeance, a high-stakes poker showdown, and an achingly slow-cooked seduction . . . Andean Express is first-class suspense.

— Robert Arellano, author of Havana Lunar