THE CHRONICLE OF ERIC NEUHOFF – Religion plays a significant role. We never know whether we are in a story or in fiction. This confusion is a sign of Halfon’s talent, whose prose is almost blindingly clear.
“What happened to you, Eduardo, in the forest?” The whole book tries to answer this question. In 1984, their parents exiled in the United States send Eduardo and his brother to a camp for Jewish children in the heart of the Guatemalan jungle. The family had fled this country gangrened by civil war. Strange vacations for the narrator and his younger brother who are about twelve years old. Military discipline prevails in this part of the Altiplano. “They woke us up screaming.” This is the first sentence. The boss of the place, a certain Samuel Blum, is not joking, in his khaki uniform. In the pocket of his raincoat, he hides a red snake. On his arm, there is a tarantula. On examination, it is a swastika. The aim of the operation is for the teenagers to get a feel for what their true roots are.
We sleep in tents, take part in violent games. They are given armbands bearing the yellow star. Eduardo soon becomes the scapegoat. Every night…
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