Unravelling a long-buried family secret

Later, some nazis arrived, mixing with earlier Germans, some of whom were nazi sympathizers. The US government became concerned and, by the end of 1941, had persuaded the Colombian government to adopt a system of "blacklisting" to prevent the economic and commercial activity of persons and companies opposed to US defence policies.

The US State Department drew up the list and a network of informers reported on any suspicious activity.

This is the background to Juan Gabriel Vasquez's novel The Informers. In 1988, a journalist named Gabriel Santoro publishes a book called A Life in Exile, about German-Jewish woman Sara Guterman, who had escaped from Germany and arrived in Colombia, aged 14, with her parents in 1938. She becomes a pivotal figure to two stories, her own and another mystery.

When A Life in Exile appears, the author's father, a respected academic, goes ballistic and publishes a scathing review in a national newspaper.

Santoro, the son, is mystified as to why his father should have reacted in this way.

Evidently, something in the book had triggered the paranoia. But he is not even mentioned in the book. The death of the old man sets Santoro off on another line of enquiry, gradually uncovering some unpleasant truths about his father. Slowly, meticulously, the old man's secret is picked out and a story of betrayal and a life living with guilt unravels before the reader.

GWYN GRIFFITHS