THE 3 NOVELS OF THE SAGA, DOUBTS & MURMURS

FIRST PUBLISHED NOVEL:

Surviving among smugglers and ghosts, under the constant threat of death! 

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At twelve thousand feet above sea level and fifteen miles from the fabled Lake Titicaca, the Ninantaya Hacienda is part of a cold, arid “lunar landscape,” where men are forced to coexist with death on a daily basis.  It is on this FOB that Second Lieutenant Gerardo Arrieta, and the ten soldiers under his command, must contend against not only the harsh weather and environment of the Altiplano, but also against bloodthirsty smugglers frequently infiltrating Peru’s border with Bolivia to bring anything from electronics, clothing, and food, to firearms, and drugs. As such, when one of the smugglers, whom the local Aimara Indians claim to be the Devil incarnate, proves himself determined to put an end to Arrieta’s life, the young officer finds himself forced to put his fate in the hands of one Yatiri, the local medicine man.

          Lovers of Latin American fiction will find this violently beautiful novel to be an essential addition to their personal libraries for it is written in the same literary vein as some of the best Latin American works of the 20^thcentury such as, Pedro Paramo, The Time of the Hero (aka The City and the Dogs), and A Chronicle of a Death Foretold. However, serious readers will also find that the protagonists of A Bullet in His Forehead bears resemblance with Don Quixote and that his existential dilemma also evinces parallels with characters in other great literary works (such as Moby Dick, Crime and Punishment, Lord Jim, and The Stranger) thus allowing Manuel Aguirre to transcend any cultural barriers. 


SECOND PUBLISHED NOVEL

Latin American Author Shatters Literary Norms!

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 When Gerardo Arrieta graduated from a military academy, he came out believing in the ideals of honor, duty, loyalty, God, and country.  But all of that began to change when Second Lieutenant Arrieta was confronted with the harsh reality of military life in the Andean Plateau.

      After completing his first assignment in FOB Ninantaya where he spent six months—with only a bare minimum of food and supplies—defending the border with Bolivia against drug trafficking/gun running smugglers whose leader is a thug who goes by the name of Hilario, whom Arrieta’s mentor, the local medicine man, Yatiri, seduces Gerardo into believing that the man is Satan in the flesh hell bent on collecting his soul. Six months later, Second Lieutenant Arrieta comes back to his main operating base of Otabala, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, only to find that there’s an active conspiracy on the part of his superiors to embezzle funds, and that some of his fellow junior officers want to include him in an intramural ‘adultery ring’. That’s when Gerardo Arrieta decides that it’s time for him to take a stand defending what he believes to be right—even if it could cost him his life— and fulfill a morally ambiguous promise he made to the old shaman.

          

      In writing Adieu Chimeras, Manuel Aguirre follows the example of such literary bad boys as Henry Miller and Charles Bukowski, in that he takes no prisoners. Also, this novel’s dark humor which helps to tone down the plot’s violence, is evocative of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.