Poso Wells is the first book I read from the Ecuadorian author Gabriela Aleman. I immediately understood that I would love it very much since it managed to surprise me and made me laugh on its first pages. I am sure this short novel, a noir and a feminist ecological thriller, will stay with you for a while
Poso Wells is about the corrupt Ecuadorian politics, land speculation, organized crime, ecological destruction, as well as the struggle of ordinary people with them. And the author accomplishes to write about these terrible things entertainingly.
Poso Wells is one of the undeveloped areas of Ecuador, where women continuously disappear. Unfortunately, women continue to disappear every year because no one is dealing with this issue properly. However, one day, the team that came to collect votes in the elections dies quite strangely, and things change when the remaining presidential candidate disappears.
Gustavo Varas, who is an honest journalist, and a dog, discover a secret underworld in Poso Wells. But that underworld doesn’t reveal much in the beginning. In the meantime, we continue to see weird crimes in Poso Wells and political crimes in Ecuador. They are all connected like a spiders web.
If you want to read an author from Ecuador, I recommend the author and especially this book. You will love it. Enjoy!
Poso Wells
Celebrated Ecuadorian author Gabriela Alemán’s first work to appear in English. A noir, feminist eco-thriller in which venally corrupt politicians and greedy land speculators finally get their just comeuppance!
In the squalid settlement of Poso Wells, women have been regularly disappearing, but the authorities have shown little interest. When the leading presidential candidate comes to town. He and his entourage are electrocute in a macabre accident witnessed by a throng of astonished spectators. The sole survivor—next in line for the presidency—inexplicably disappears from sight.
Gustavo Varas, a principled journalist, picks up the trail, which leads him into a violent, lawless underworld. Bella Altamirano, a fearless local, is on her own crusade to pierce the settlement’s code of silence, ignoring repeated death threats. It turns out that the disappearance of the candidate and those of the women are intimately connect. And not just to a local crime wave, but to a multinational magnate’s plan to plunder the country’s cloud forest preserve.
Gabriela Alemán
Gabriela Alemán has emerged as one of the most prominent voices of the new generation of Ecuadorian writers. Her stories have been translate into multiple languages, including Croatian, Chinese, Hebrew, French, as well as English. And she has been much-honor for her work with fellowships and literary awards. The Peruvian author, Fernando Iwasaki has stated that. She is “one of the best contemporary writers of stories in the Spanish language.”
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
