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A FINANCIAL TIMES ‘SUMMER BOOKS OF 2021’ PICK

‘An accomplished, inventive detective novel thrumming with tension and family secrets’ Sanae Lemoine, author of The Margot Affair

‘An astonishingly assured first novel, both funny and moving’
The Times Crime Club

‘Very impressive… Repentance is an evocative crime thriller with a likeable, self-aware protagonist, but also skilfully explores the darkest period in Argentina’s modern history’
Financial Times

‘A powerful crime novel … Opening old historical wounds that still strongly affect Argentinian society, this is a tale with many layers, many of them painful to evoke and a strong depiction of a country and a period that still simmers between the pages of history books and the crime novel is a perfect way of lancing the boil. Recommended’
Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time

BUENOS AIRES, 1981.
Argentina is in the grip of a brutal military dictatorship.
Inspector Joaquin Alzada’s work in the Buenos Aires police force exposes him to the many realities of life under a repressive regime: desperate people, terrified people and – worst of all – missing people.
Personally, he prefers to stay out of politics, enjoying a simple life with his wife Paula. But when his revolutionary brother Jorge is disappeared, Alzada will stop at nothing to rescue him.

TWENTY YEARS LATER…
The country is in the midst of yet another devastating economic crisis and riots are building in the streets of Buenos Aires.
This time Alzada is determined to keep his head down and wait patiently for his retirement. But when a dead body lands in a skip behind the morgue and a woman from one of the city’s wealthiest families goes missing, Alzada is forced to confront his own involvement in one of the darkest periods in Argentinian history – a time of
collective horror and personal tragedy.

Alternating between two key moments in the life of a man and his country, Repentance is a noir with a difference, featuring an unforgettable character on a quest to solve a case that offers both a painful reminder of all he has lost and a last chance at redemption.

Publisher Review

An accomplished, inventive detective novel thrumming with tension, family secrets, and the trauma of a violent military dictatorship. Seamlessly moving between the Dirty War and the economic crisis of 2001, Eloisa Diaz displays an acute understanding of Argentine history and politics. Repentance is both a riveting noir and a moving exploration of one man's search to repair the past. * Sanae Lemoine, author of THE MARGOT AFFAIR *