Description

‘Perhaps that moment had been exceptional, but still, I felt alive. That pressure on my chest means being alive.’

Forty-nine, with a kind face, no serious ailments (apart from varicose veins on his ankles), a good salary and three moody children, widowed accountant Martin Santome is about to retire. He assumes he’ll take up gardening, or the guitar, or whatever retired people do. What he least expects is to fall passionately in love with his shy young employee Laura Avellaneda. As they embark upon an affair, happy and irresponsible, Martin begins to feel the weight of his quiet existence lift – until, out of nowhere, their joy is cut short.

The intimate, heartbreaking diary of an ordinary man who is reborn when he falls in love one final time, this beloved Latin American novel has been translated into twenty languages and sold millions of copies worldwide, and is now published in Penguin Classics for the first time.

Publisher Review

This 1960 Latin American classic had me laughing, blubbing and eager to discover more of Benedetti's books... If you imagine that being 50 heralds a life of daytime TV, cocoa and slippers, then this life-enhancing novel will shatter your dread -- Val Hennessy * Daily Mail * The Truce remains a Latin American classic. Expertly translated here by Harry Morales, it is a simple tale about a straightforward man who falls in love with a younger woman - until disaster strikes and wrenches them apart... Intimate and moving, this novel is a real find -- Rosemary Goring * Herald Scotland * Arresting... emotionally astute, melancholic, uplifting and tragic... This book was written in 1960 and now, deservedly, it is a Penguin Modern Classic * London Evening Standard * In this book, all the emotions of your life are identified, named and renamed. When you read it, you won't believe that you've felt so much -- Roberto Saviano