Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the Spanish (Guatemala) by Daniel Hahn – published May 2026

In 1984, three years after his family had moved to the United States to take refuge from the civil war in Guatemala, 13 year old Eduardo and his 12 year old brother very reluctantly attend a Jewish children’s camp back in their country of birth. Although his parents don’t actually say so, the adult looking back (Halfon himself) thinks they wanted to reaffirm Judaism to their Americanised children. The camp turns out to be a horrific experience.

As often happens, by embellishing on the summary, many reviewers give too much away; a bug bear of mine. Any potential reader should seek to know no more.

This was my first experience of Halfon’s writing, a Guatemalan who lives in the US but writes in Spanish. He has four other books in translation, and I am keen to read more. He writes a type of autofiction, about identity, memory, and his Jewish heritage, with themes of exile, and the Holocaust.

This book in particular is very dark, almost in the genre of horror at times, and a great example of how the genre can be used to get over the most powerful messages.

My GoodReads score 5 / 5