Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the Portuguese by Zoe Perry and Julie Sanchez

When the novel begins, the narrator, Cecília Matzenbacher, is 9 years old and fascinated by nature. She is looking back at a particularly significant time in her life, in Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil in the 1980s; as an adult, she is an established and renowned naturalist.

Her father, a doctor who has become a politician, is charged with killing a work colleague and friend, João Carlos Satti.

Cecília as an adult has migrated to the US with work, though her life is a mess, moving from town to town frequently and in a marriage that is failing. When she learns that her father is dying, she is forced to relive the time of her childhood between when her father was accused, and his trial.

Bensimon creates such a tense atmosphere with her writing that the story is complete compelling. It is a layered work with tangled memories and relationships troubled by circumstance. Midway through it seems the tale is drawing to a close, but Bensimon has great timing also, and reveals a couple of twists that hold an even greater grip on the reader’s attention. In addition, the characters are convincing, so much that it reads like true crime, and the period detail of Brazil in the 1980s is fascinating.

My GoodReads score 5 / 5