Trujillo [Hardcover]

Lucius Shepard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2004

In the town of Trujillo, in Honduras, on the edge of the Mosquito Coast, Dr. Arturo Ochoa, a semi-retired psychiatrist, has a single patient: a troubled young man named Thomas Stearns, the son of a wealthy Atlanta family. Stearns has been found adrift on the Carribean in a vessel owned by two Nicaraguans, both of whom are missing; he has been alone for eighteen days and has little memory of that time. Suspected of murder, Stearns is unconcerned. He knows his family will buy off the police. But he is reluctant to leave Trujillo, having developed an odd affinity for the town. As therapy progresses, he tells of a mysterious stone figure regurgitated by, improbably, a whirlpool, and Dr. Ochoa, drawn into his pathology, begins to doubt not only Stearns' sanity, but his own.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Heat-the steamy oppression of Honduras's Mosquito Coast and the turgid psychological condition of this novel's two leading characters-dominates Shepard's macabre excursion into the paranormal (after Colonel Rutherford's Colt). Having survived eighteen days adrift in the Caribbean, even after the suspicious disappearance of his two Nicaraguan companions, wealthy young American Thomas Stearns is treated for amnesia by semi-retired Honduran psychiatrist Dr. Arturo Ochoa. Sinister flotsam surfaces from Stearns's unconscious as he half-remembers a primitive statue rising out of a maelstrom, a Mesoamerican artifact supposedly buried at Trujillo by Columbus's men and containing an ancient demon. The statue's symbolism posits an interrelation between death and sexuality that gradually obsesses Ochoa until the physician/patient roles reverse, a process catalyzed by the strangely gifted young native woman Stearns marries. Though Shepard's extended scenes of sexual predation and sadism may be excessive, his evocation of sultry tropical dangers and spiritual possession is powerful, like a suffocating nightmare when the air conditioning-or conventional morality-has broken down.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 600 pages
• Publisher: PS Publishing (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1902880854
• ISBN-13: 978-1902880853
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,008,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars spellbinding - as usual, February 13, 2007

By 

KK (edinburgh) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trujillo (Hardcover)

Lucius Shepard is on top form, and this means absolutely spell-binding. I read this novel in one sitting, the way I've tended to read his other work.

Trujillo is grounded in complex psychology and psychopathology, and the 'supernatural' elements are allegorical rather than literal. This makes the story of Trujillo, like all his other writing, universally appealing. The sinister, oppressive pas-de-deux between psychopathic young gringo Stearns and battered, overweight Honduran psychiatrist Dr Ochoa, is gripping because of its many layers. There's the instantly recognisable arrogance of the rich American in a poor Central American backwater, pitted against a fine mind gone to seed in the oppressive poverty, heat and corruption of Honduras. There's the timeless theme of man tormenting woman for his pleasure, and indeed man tormenting man. There's the politics of a dusty, godforsaken Latin American province. I imagine the name Trujillo - also the name of the heinous psychopathic dictator of the Dominican Republic who was renown for his torture methods of innocent people - is not a mere coincidence.

The deeply humane undertones to this profound, savage story of cruelty passed down the generations stamp this hypnotic novel with the Lucius Shepard hallmark where horror and despair almost win against beauty and hope. Almost. There is nothing clear-cut in Trujillo's transgressive worlds, and nothing reassuring.

Lucius Shepard is simply one of the most original and exciting writers working in English today. Why he isn't published in Britain is a mystery that needs an urgent solution.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A haunting, mesmerizing, wonderfully efficient piece of writing, May 7, 2007

By 

Henry W. Wagner (Rockaway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trujillo (Hardcover)

Widely regarded by many as one of the finest genre writers working today, Lucius Shepard has, in recent years, published a plethora of dark, delightful stories, thrilling his fans and giving award panels plenty to debate. Primarily working in the novella form, which at times seems to have been created especially for him, his eloquence, style, sense of place and troubled protagonists have lately once again raised his already high profile.

A reflection on love, death, virility and redemption, Trujillo is a story you can lose yourself in, a haunting, mesmerizing, wonderfully efficient piece of writing that fully engages each of your senses. Full of surprise, wonder, and sudden brutality, it also strikes a balance noticeably missing from Shepard's recent work, where love does not always prevail (think of the novellas Louisiana Breakdown and The Liar's House). In Trujillo, love leads to ruin, but it also leads to deliverance--it's the powerful juxtaposition of the two results that allows the novel to be characterized as both a triumph and a tragedy, making for a truly memorable reading experience.