In an unnamed country in South America, struggling to heal after a civil war that seemed endless, a radio program called Lost City Radio gathers the nation together once a day.  It is hosted by Norma whose voice both eloquent and empathetic, tells the news of the day interspersed with musical interludes, but most importantly Norma reads lists of names which people send her of those who have disappeared or are lost. They hope that by reading these names on the radio they will be able to find their friends and loved ones who are missing due to the war. Occasionally someone is found through the show and there are reunions that are broadcast, giving hope to the country that their loved ones will also be found.

“[Norma’s] public life was the radio, where she was mother to an imaginary nation of missing people. Her private life was antiseptic and empty, a place of memory, music and solitude,” and it would have remained that way except that one day a young boy named Victor comes to the radio station and asks for Norma.  He has brought a list of the missing from his village and hopes that she will read the names on her show. As Norma reads through the list she recognizes someone that she too has been looking for: her husband Rey.

Although Alarcon has written a powerful meditation on war and it’s aftermath, this book is also a haunting story of loss and the power of second chances.  Norma has constructed a life for herself, but still waits for her husband to return, never giving herself permission to fully live again. As Alarcon puts it: “There are people out there who think of themselves as belonging to someone. To a person who for whatever reason has gone. And they wait years: they don’t look for their missing, they are the missing.” As Norma tries to come to terms with what it means for her husband’s name to be on this list, we begin to see her wake up and to find new meaning and purpose in her life.

Almost fable-like in its telling, Alarcon writes fluidly, with characters who are both engaging and fully realized. The story is told in brief flashbacks to different times and places, and with different narrators, which is a bit distracting but served as a useful device since it gave those of us who have never experienced war a small taste of it’s chaotic and disorienting nature. Compelling and thoughtful, this book has stayed with me long after I read it.

Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Keith, Ken, Sharon and Marian.

Book Study Worthy: YES!

Read in ebook format.