Wakolda

Summary

In Lucía Puenzo's novel "Wakolda," Patagonia in 1960 becomes a mysterious and unsettling backdrop for the encounter between innocence and evil. In a remote corner of Argentina, a family of settlers opens a guesthouse on the lakeshore, where their lives intersect with a mysterious German doctor. His cold charm and obsessive interest in twelve-year-old Liliana, a fragile and dreamy girl, gradually reveal a disturbing fixation on the idea of human bodily perfection. Against a growing sense of unease and ambiguity, the author masterfully weaves real historical shadows into the narrative—the flight of Nazi criminals to South America. Amid the stark beauty of the Patagonian landscape, a drama of trust, betrayal, and lost innocence unfolds, where each character is confronted with their own fears and secrets.