Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Frank Wynne – Published 2024

The large part of this unconventional short novel is narrated firstly by the unnamed assistant to Amado Dam, a 1930s rubber magnate, then by the deeply unpleasant Amado himself.

A Peruvian ship is delivering 19 undocumented indigenous Indians to an ‘ethnopark’, destined to be the first ever ‘human safari’. On docking and being unloaded a sloth is discovered, and after a lengthy inspection it is found that a scratch from its claw can connect two people in orgasmic, telepathic euphoria.
The scheming Dam sees past its potential to unlock the reciprocity of all living beings and cynically recognises a business opportunity, though the idea of unadulterated pleasure clashes with his own contemptuous prejudices.

In its second part there follows a complex, subtle meditation on how the wealthy destroy nature. This is a much more difficult and less-rewarding reading experience than the first half of the book, concerning the political consequences of how immoral people capitalise on natural resources and the disenfranchised.

Its appendices tell of the sloth’s adoption by other governments for the purpose of surveillance and propaganda.

My GoodReads score 3 / 5