How does a good doctor tell his beloved father that he has inoperable cancer? How long can he wait to tell him?
Andres Miranda is a doctor of immunology, the only son of a man who did everything to help him through the trauma of losing his mother in a plane crash when he was a boy. Javier Miranda's multiple lesions are suggestive of a metastatic disease, but he blames his dizzy spells on the summer heat. Though he's 69, he's always enjoyed good health--until now.
Dr. Miranda's anguish at the approaching loss of his father is juxtaposed against a string of supplicating e-mails from a former patient. Ernesto Duran has been assured by the doctor that he is in perfect health, but he keeps experiencing sudden, dizzying drops in blood pressure. Duran's pathological persistence has caused Dr. Miranda to forbid him to enter the hospital, but as his e-mails become increasingly desperate, Dr. Miranda's secretary, Karina, has mercy on him and secretly impersonates the doctor to write a kind reply.
"Why do we find it so hard to accept that life is pure chance?" this short novel asks repeatedly, as its dual narratives--both revolving around lying to give someone false comfort--create a web of needy, passionate people who could be saved by the redemptive power of words... if only they'll talk to each other. Venezuelan poet and novelist Barrera Tyszka's characters are good people, flawed and conflicted, lying and facing their fears, trying to do the right thing. --Nick DiMartino, Nick's Picks, University Book Store, Seattle