El jardín de la culpa

the long version

In the imaginative world of creative writing, the prose fiction that is here presented once again by a talented and perceptive author/physician, Elias Hasbun, M.D. expands and complements the extensive corpus of humanistic writings proudly published in the Scripta Humanistica literary series. The novel at hand, El jardín de la culpa (The Garden of Guilt), set in and around the historical city of Cusco, Peru, is a masterpiece of realistic fiction that delves into the complexity of human behavior in a conflicting time of Latin American society where traditional values and modern beliefs are often at odds. Old and new ideas conflict in a setting where the presence of the Church, the Inquisition and popular superstitions shape social conduct.From the point of view of artistic form, style and psychological penetration, Hasbun's novel echoes the finest moments in the annals of nineteenth-century Spanish literature with such works by Juan Valera, as Pepita Jiménez, and Benito Pérez Galdós, Doña Perfecta. The author engages the reader in a well-developed story of intrigue, suspense, and death cast in a background rich in visual, olfactory and auditory sensations. The hermeneutic framework of the novel makes it an important and valuable reading for the student of Latin American literature, a significant example of scholarly research, and a superb model of expository prose for aspiring authors.--Publisher.