A short time ago I posted about the wonderful book spa I enjoyed at Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights, and the excellent collection of books I came away with. Affections by Rodrigo Hasbun is one of those books. When I was asked about the types of books I like I talked about travel and books set in other cultures and in particulary South America, as it was somewhere I had spent some time travelling in. This book was the result of that conversation.
Affections is set in Bolivia and is based on the true life the story of Hans Erti, a German explorer and camera man. Hans was a well known Nazi photographer and after the war when because of his reputation he could no longer get work, he took his family, a wife and three daughters from post war Germany to La Paz, the capitol of Bolivia. He goes in search of Paititi, an ancient Inca city buried deep in the rain forest, taking his two eldest daughters with him on his adventure.
The story is based on actual events and is told through a series of short vignettes and the perspective of his daughters. Sadly what was planned as a wonderful adventure causes the breakdown of Hans family. Each of his daughters ‘find themselves in different ways’ and in doing so are carried further and further away from their father.
“It’s not true that our memory is a safe place. In there, too things get distorted and lost. In there, too we end up turning away from the people we love the most”
I felt sad for each of the daughters in turn and also Hans wife. All seemed to have been taken along with him on a journey and life of his making. His drive and will left little time for consideration of their needs. The outcome, the psychological and geographical destruction of a family.
I enjoyed ‘Affections’ because of spending time in Bolivia and knowing a little of Inca history from my travels. Had I not I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it so much. In times it felt bleak and desolate and I struggled a little to piece the events together. However the quality of the writing is high and has a sparseness to it which is powerful, so any failure to connect with it lays with me and not the author.