EL AÑO DE LOS SAICOS

'The Year of Los Saicos' uses sharp humour to paint a portrait of the internal workings of Liman society in 1964 (the year the eponymous rock group first came to prominence), trapped between respect for hypocritical rules and the degradation of its members. A society in which, as one of the characters observes, 'everybody lies', and the act of lying has become a questionable survival tactic. The novel tells of various events surrounding the seduction of a maid by two cousins from a 'good family', stories that flow into one another like interconnecting vases and give the reader the impression of reading a story as it is being written. Patrick Rosas paints a pitiless portrait of a petty, hypocritical and racist society in which the omnipresent cult of beauty almost increases the stifling nature of the Liman upper classes.