Garcia's Heart
Non-series
Liam
Durcan
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-312-36708-2 (0312367082)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-36708-4 (9780312367084)
Publication Date: November 2007
List Price: $23.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): Neurologist Patrick Lazerenko travels to The Hague to witness the war crimes trial of his beloved mentor, Hernan García, a Honduran doctor accused of involvement in torture. Driven by his own youthful memories of the man and his family, Lazerenko is determined to get to the truth behind the shocking accusations, even as the prosecution and a relentless journalist suspect Patrick of hiding information. The defense has its own ideas for Patrick, hoping to use his latest research to help vindicate García. As Patrick struggles with his conscience, and the pressures from the neuroeconomics company he abandoned in Boston, he must also contend with seeing García’s daughter, his former lover, and the surprising influence a shady advocacy group seems to have over her, and with the fact García himself is refusing to speak, to anyone.
Review: In his
day job Montreal resident Liam Durcan is an Assistant Professor at
McGill University and a neurologist at the Montreal Neurological
Hospital. In his debut novel Garcia’s
Heart he has transformed his knowledge of his world of medicine
and his observations of humanity at large into a compelling story that
has won him the Arthur Ellis 2008 Best First Novel award.
Durcan’s novel is set against an extremely large canvas, a trial
for crimes against humanity for the so-called Angel of Lepaterique at
the War Crimes Tribunal building in Churchillplein in Den Haag,
Netherlands. The Angel - a sobriquet from a book title about him - is a
former Honduran cardiologist, Hernan Garcia de la Cruz, the mentor of
Dr. Patrick Lazerenko, formerly of Montreal and now a Bostonian, and he
stands accused of medical torture, murder and crimes against humanity.
Doubly motivated by curiosity and loyalty to the Garcia family, the
members of which he has not seen for several years, Lazerenko has come
to the trial at the defence attorney’s request as a potential
witness. Lazerenko could testify as the Garcia siblings Maria, his
ex-lover, Nina, her younger sister, and Roberto, his continuing
antagonist, hope, and the father’s lawyer cajoles, as an expert
witness in the application of neuroscientific principles to explain the
elder Garcia’s apparently out-of-character behaviour. It is a
daunting task and one for which Lazerenko who has turned from medicine
to marketing, has little stomach for, and even less assurance of
success, especially since a suspiciously deteriorating Garcia has
steadfastly refused to speak to anyone or to testify on his own behalf.
And while the crimes against Garcia are unveiled in almost slow motion
revelations through shocking eye-witness testimonies and detailed
references to passages of a best-selling journalist’s book about
the alleged perpetrator, Lazerenko must confront his own demons, real,
imaginary, long forgotten or recently remembered.
Durcan’s book is saturated with the drizzle of the Den Haag
November weather, the bleakness of the trial and its crush of evidence
against the accused, and the futility of Lazerenko’s attempts to
re-establish his recollected relationships between himself and the
Garcias for “he did need the Garcias now, as much as he had
needed them then.” Former lover Celia and he are “little
more than strangers now,” and she has a two-year-old son in tow
but no husband in sight. Nina the youngest of the three siblings now
oversees the family’s expanded food store after the death of her
mother, incarceration of her father, disinterest of her sister and
ineptitude of her brother. And Roberto, ever the one to use his fists
instead of his brain has sucker-punched Lazerenko, leaving him bruised,
unconscious and briefly hospitalized in the infirmary of the Tribunal
building where he is cared for by a doctor “under his white coat
of industriousness.” Between healing and recalling the way they
all once were when the licenceless Garcia clandestinely offered medical
services in the rear of the Montreal corner grocery store, Le Depanneur
Mondial, that he ran after fleeing the Honduras, Lazerenko weighs his
emotional turmoil against his need to manage via increasingly annoying
emails the problems of his Neuronaut biotech company with its
“cognitive approach to marketing.” With surgical precision
and intense psychological insight Durcan expertly probes and bares the
hearts, minds and intents of his characters as Lazerenko tries to make
sense of his life and Garcia struggles to deal with his. It is a
fascinating operation with heart-rending conclusions for all concerned.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of Garcia's Heart.
Review Copyright © 2008 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission
Have you read Garcia's Heart? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Garcia's Heart
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), November 2007
ISBN-10: 0-312-36708-2 (0312367082)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-36708-4 (9780312367084)
Omnimystery keywords for Garcia's Heart ...
Location(s) referenced: The Hague, The Netherlands, Boston.
