Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the Spanish (Venezuela) by Daniel Hahn

This complex novel begins with protagonist, Ulises Kan, a part-time teacher and film enthusiast, realising that although his own life is far from perfect, he is more upset by his country, Venezuela, which he decides, has is in a mess.

However, he sees a chance of his own salvation when his father-in-law, a fan of Simon Bolivar, dies. Kan is left a note from him, The Apocalypse is nigh. Sadly, I won’t be here to see it. It’s your task to build the ark and put your woman and your animals there and hold for 40 days.
.. his dying wish was to transform Los Argonautas, his beloved estate, into a home for the stray dogs plaguing the streets of Caracas.
An attractive premise indeed. Ulises recruits staff to help him, and gets to work, but is waylaid when girl-friend from the past moves in to help, but she has secrets.
This is an unpredictable novel, that falls just short of being really good. Calderón and his translator Hahn, over-complicate things at times. It may be a question of the translation, or more likely my lack of knowledge of Venezuela’s history.

My GoodReads score 3 / 5