Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published in USA
Jan 2021
304 pages
Genre: Novels
Publication Information
A decade after fleeing for his life, a man is pulled back to Argentina by an undying love.
In 1976, Tomás Orilla is a medical student in Buenos Aires, where he has moved in hopes of reuniting with Isabel, a childhood crush. But the reckless passion that has long drawn him is leading Isabel ever deeper into the ranks of the insurgency fighting an increasingly oppressive regime. Tomás has always been willing to follow her anywhere, to do anything to prove himself. Yet what exactly is he proving, and at what cost to them both?
It will be years before a summons back arrives for Tomás, now living as Thomas Shore in New York. It isn't a homecoming that awaits him, however, so much as an odyssey into the past, an encounter with the ghosts that lurk there, and a reckoning with the fatal gap between who he has become and who he once aspired to be. Raising profound questions about the sometimes impossible choices we make in the name of love, Hades, Argentina is a gripping, ingeniously narrated literary debut.
"A complex and intimate meditation on love, guilt, and the decisions that haunt us forever." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A powerful and complex novel, told in hallucinatory prose that challenges us to work out what is real vs. what is imagined. Recommended for all literary fiction collections." - Library Journal (starred review)
"[A] haunting story about repression and the vulnerability of youth...A devastating reminder of the tragic costs of politics made personal." - Booklist (starred review)
"[M]esmerizing...Loedel's unflinching look at human frailty adds a revelatory new chapter to South American Cold War literature." - Publishers Weekly
"An astonishingly powerful novel about the complex nature of guilt." - Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn and Nora Webster
"A stunning descent into the haze of memory and history. In his interrogation of complicity and violence, Loedel explores how institutionalized evil disappears humans not only from the physical world, but from their own souls as well." - Francisco Cantú, author of The Line Becomes A River
"Strange, gorgeous, and terrifying—a book for the grievers, and for those of us who wish we could turn back time to remedy past mistakes—and so, for all of us." - R. O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries
"A remarkable novel, personal and political, elegiac and intimate, with a tenderness and wisdom evident in every passage. A beautiful book." - Dinaw Mengestu, author of All Our Names
"Loedel writes in the venerable Argentinian tradition of mixing the political and the supernatural, but his novel comes from a different language and a new sensibility. It took me to places I had never visited before." - Juan Gabriel Vásquez, author of The Sound of Things Falling
This information about Hades, Argentina shown above was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. In most cases, the reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that the reviews shown do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, please send us a message with the mainstream media reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Daniel Loedel is a book editor based in Brooklyn. Hades, Argentina, his first novel, was inspired by his family history.
Become a Member and discover books that entertain, engage & enlighten.
The Dutch House is my introduction to Ann Patchett, which, after reading it, surprises me. I had ...
The Prophets
by Robert Jones Jr.
A stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation.
Reader Reviews
The Fortunate Ones
by Ed Tarkington
An engrossing story of class, love, and loyalty for fans of Kevin Wilson's Nothing to See Here.
Reader Reviews
The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O'Donnell
Introducing a detective duo for the ages who unlock the secrets of a startling Victorian mystery.
Visitors can view some of BookBrowse for free. Full access is for members only.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
