Sunday book pick: Mario Benedetti’s 1960 novel ‘The Truce’ makes the heart soar, then breaks it

“…I would never feel that way again, at least at that level, with that intensity. The pinnacle of happiness is like that, surely it’s like that. Furthermore, I’m sure the pinnacle is only a second long, a brief second, a flashing instant, and there’s no right to an extension.”

Uruguayan writer Mario Bendetti’s 1960 novel, La Truega, translated from the Spanish as The Truce into English in 2015 by Harry Morales, lures the heart with happy promises of a new romance, gives it wings to soar with joy, and brings it down – with a rude whack – moment before the pinnacle, “a flashing instant”, can come to a pass.

Love comes late

Martín Santomé, a 49-year-old widower, has all but given up on the pleasures of youth. His wife died at 25 and left him in charge of three children – two sons and one daughter – who are all grown up now and remember little of their mother. Martín has been a good father to them; he has spent much of his time worrying about being judged incompetent. He doesn’t have a particularly remarkable job, nor is he a man of superb talents, but what he is proud of is being a competent father. He is doubtful of whether his...

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