Andean Express

By Juan de Recacoechea

"Part social commentary, part mystery thriller [Andean Express] is a chilling, tragic tale."MultiCultural Review

This murder mystery follows a tragic overnight train journey in 1952 from Bolivia to Chile, presenting a moving environment at once carnivalesque and sinister. The novel explores the social tensions characteristic of Bolivian society in a way that is both accessible and highly entertaining.

Juan de Recacoechea was born in La Paz, Bolivia, and worked as a journalist in Europe for almost twenty years. After returning to his native country, he helped found Bolivia's first state-run television network and dedicated himself to fiction writing. His novel American Visa won Bolivia’s National Book Prize, was adapted into an award-winning film, and was translated into English and published by Akashic Books to great critical acclaim.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Akashic Books
• Release date: Apr 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781617750588

Reviews for Andean Express

[lbm007 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Bought this book because I liked American Visa by the same author. Didn't like this one as much, but it was a very fast read. The mention on the back of the book of 'Murder on the Andean Express' *wink, wink* hints that the story will be about a murder on an overnight train from La Paz, Bolivia to Arica, Chile. It is, but the story is not a whodunit so much as a brief glimpse into the lives of the various people in the first class sleeper car where the murder occurs.

[mmwiseheart · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Andean Express is a glimpse into the life of the recently graduated Ricardo. We follow Ricardo on his train ride from Bolivia to Chile. He has made this trip with his parents numerous times in the past, but this is his first solo trip and a whirlwind of chaos ensues. Honestly, I'm not sure what to think. I read the book for a mystery book group, but I didn't find it to be a mystery. The only mysterious thing about the book is wondering who hired Rocha, but I really didn't care enough about the story to wonder all that much. It ends rather abruptly, leaving a loose end or two and introducing a new character in the last couple of chapters. At times, I was intrigued by the story, but as a whole it didn't draw me in. Most of the time, it is well written. At other times, I had difficulty understanding what was going on. I almost think I'd have understood it better if I read it in the original Spanish. It's not bad, but it's not a book I would choose to read again.

[tadad_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Juan de Recacoechea’s short novel takes us through a variety of genres. It starts as an homage to Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, with its multitude of train passengers who are not all what they seem. It moves through comedy, giving us scenes that echo Jack Lemmon’s pajama party with Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot—in fact, one character comments that “this could be a Billy Wilder comedy.” Bits of Bolivian social commentary are thrown in as a backdrop as it moves through a romance between the protagonist and the young woman he meets on the train, before finally winding up as something approaching a coming of age story.It’s all very light and quickly read; I can see why the author is a popular best seller in Bolivia. Mildly recommended.

[ficusfan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The cover and title of this book grabbed me in the book store. I don't think I have ever read anything set here.It is a short fast read, that is translated from Spanish. I enjoyed it, but didn't get a lot of emotional connection with the characters.It is a story set on a train that is traveling overnight from the high planes of Bolivia to the coast in Chile. The main character is a young man who has just finished school for the year, and indeed will be going to college next year. It is the final trip he is taking, and the first on his own without parents or guardians. He travels this way every year after school is out. Because he is alone for the first time, he sees the trip and the people with fresh eyes. He is from an upper class, rich family, and he knows most of the people on the train in first class with him. The first class passengers are the focus of the story, but we also see those in the background who are part of the fabric of life in 1950s Bolivia and Chile. The social set float across the top and the poor, and the Indians do the work and the suffering. We also see the official infrastructure with the train, an arm of the government, making life easy for those in charge. It is staffed by mid-level bureaucrats who bow and scrape to the rich, and then take out their spleen on the poor and defenseless.There is ostensibly a murder on the train among the first class passengers, but its not a serious mystery. The victim is a coarse man who bankrupted his boss, an aristocrat, and then forced his widow to allow him to marry the young and beautiful daughter. The widow and the daughter are saved from disgrace and poverty and the man gets a hot wife and entrée into society, as well as the dead man's money. No one in first class cares that he has been killed, and in fact help the wife and daughter hide the death when crossing the border so they won't be pulled from the train in the middle of the night. In fact they all help to make the death look natural. He was fat, and unhealthy and supposedly went to sleep and died - rather than being smothered.Several of the first class passengers are actually disguised and not what they seem. There is the vengeful relative, and a supposed priest who is really a labor organizer on the run. The real first class passengers see themselves as above the law, in fact they see it as the law is supposed to work for them, to make their lives smooth, and to do what they want.A true slice of life of the place and time.I enjoyed it and was interested in the world the author created.