The north of Argentina serves as the setting for The Foreign Girls
She's back!
Foreign Girls is the second novel featuring Verónica Rosenthal.
Before I opened the book, I had to ask myself: Would Foreign Girls be as exciting and engrossing as the Argentine author's first novel in the series, The Fragility of Bodies? Now, having finished reading, I know the answer—yes!
What an enthralling tale with narrative momentum that builds and builds and builds. I usually take my time, but I found this literary thriller so absorbing, I finished its 400 pages in three days.
While traveling through Northern Argentina on vacation from her job as an investigative journalist, Verónica writes two emails to her boss, editor Paula Locatti, detailing her experience befriending two European travelers, Frida from Norway and Petra from Italy. Verónica feels a special bond with these two lovely young women. The trio spends several glorious days together at her cousin's plush mountain home and then on the road, hopping from town to town. But Verónica’s third email to Paula is short and haunting, which begins: “The girls are dead. Petra and Frida. They killed them, raped them, treated them like animals. It was after the party. I'm to blame for all of it, everything that happened to them. If I hadn’t left them there, they’d be alive.”
The three emails comprise the novel's prologue. The first chapter circles back to Verónica’s solo journey, her meeting Frida and Petra, and Verónica developing a sexual, loving relationship with Frida as the trio tours the rustic Argentine terrain together. Since there are so many twists, turns, and zigzags, I’ll jump straight to highlighting several characters.
SCANDINAVAIN BLONDE
Verónica in a tender moment: “She moved her lips, felt Frida's mouth, the warm breath, the perfumed skin. Verónica opened her eyes. She wasn't going to let this be a dream, like a wave that carried her along without her doing anything. She moved slightly aware and took Frida's face between her hands. Only now did she see her friend's eyes were grey, or perhaps a muted green. Nordic eyes. Eyes like that had loved Vikings and Valkyries, and now they were looking at her.”
Frida wasn’t just a beautiful woman capable of deep intimacy; she was also a truly compassionate soul. As a teenager, she supported Bosnian immigrants, and years later, she helped build schools in Senegal. Knowing Frida’s kindness and exceptional character only deepens Verónica’s determination to track down her killers and ensure they pay for their cruel and brutal crime.
SOUTHERN EUROPEAN GRACE
“At some point in the evening, Petra picked up the guitar and sang some of her own compositions. Her music was like her character: ironic, funny, sometimes dramatic or overblown.”
Every time Verónica thinks of Petra's music, her artistry, and creativity, the image of sensitive Petra being raped, tortured, and murdered by a group of despicable thugs floods her mind. Her unflinching resolve to hunt down those callous brutes only grows stronger.
FEDERICO
Those readers familiar with The Fragility of Bodies will know Federico is the shinning young legal star in the law firm headed by Verónica's father. Federico has had his own intense past relationship with Verónica and decides to travel north to protect the woman he holds dear. Federico brings along a Blaser R8, a German hunting rifle he learned to use under the direction of his father, a seasoned hunter. Now, could a gentlemanly lawyer use his hunting rifle to actually shoot someone? If they were planning to harm Verónica, you bet he could.
MECHI
Verónica's investigation leads her to a sixteen-year-old girl living on the edge of town with her grandmother. The girl's name is Mechi and she has lots to tell Verónica once she overcomes her initial shyness. One of the more charming parts of the novel: Mechi becomes so impressed by Verónica that she decides to follow the advice she's given by the confident journalist from Buenos Aires, things like going to night school, work in a shop in town rather than remain a housekeeper, not having children until she reaches thirty or thirty-five. Mechi even takes up smoking cigarettes, lighting and puffing and holding her head just like Verónica. And what she relates to Verónica, events going back a number of years, propels Verónica's investigation in a dark, dangerous direction.
Similar to The Frailty of Bodies, Sergio Olguín's The Foreign Girls delves into the grim social and economic way of life the majority of men, women, and children are forced to accept as simply how it is. This time out in rural Northern Argentina. And the roots of this suffocating, deadly reality go deep, very deep. At one juncture Verónica observes, “The landowners, the wealthy political leaders, the upper class señores who claim to be so horrified these days by corruption, they're all the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of murderers who made their fortunes by killing indigenous people, workers and activists.”
The Foreign Girls is a stunner worth any reader's time.
Argentine author Sergio Olguín, born 1967
Verónica's investigation leads her to a sixteen-year-old girl living on the edge of town with her grandmother. The girl's name is Mechi and she has lots to tell Verónica once she overcomes her initial shyness. One of the more charming parts of the novel: Mechi becomes so impressed by Verónica that she decides to follow the advice she's given by the confident journalist from Buenos Aires, things like going to night school, work in a shop in town rather than remain a housekeeper, not having children until she reaches thirty or thirty-five. Mechi even takes up smoking cigarettes, lighting and puffing and holding her head just like Verónica. And what she relates to Verónica, events going back a number of years, propels Verónica's investigation in a dark, dangerous direction.
Similar to The Frailty of Bodies, Sergio Olguín's The Foreign Girls delves into the grim social and economic way of life the majority of men, women, and children are forced to accept as simply how it is. This time out in rural Northern Argentina. And the roots of this suffocating, deadly reality go deep, very deep. At one juncture Verónica observes, “The landowners, the wealthy political leaders, the upper class señores who claim to be so horrified these days by corruption, they're all the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of murderers who made their fortunes by killing indigenous people, workers and activists.”
The Foreign Girls is a stunner worth any reader's time.
Argentine author Sergio Olguín, born 1967
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