The Tour Guide
A novel based on a true story of survival, silence, and succession in postcolonial Peru. Set against the real-life devastation of the 1970 Ancash earthquake and avalanche, The Tour Guide is a novel of reunion, reckoning, deception, death, and the unbearable weight of what a single life can contain.
A child is born in secret, his presence unacknowledged, his origin obscured by silence. Those with power conceal what they do not want to answer for.
Those without it learn to speak without words. Yet, from the convent corridors of Yungay to the highest home on the hill, decisions are made without them. A girl is hidden. A baby disappears. No one signs a ledger. No one asks the right questions.
What unfolds is a different kind of inheritance. A path that leads to a foreign city. A past narrated by a tour guide, while the truth of his own remains just out of reach. What he carries is not memory, but something more ominous. It has waited. It is coming.
At once intimate and sweeping, The Tour Guide is a work of emotional archaeology: literary fiction grounded in true testimony, told without flourish or apology.
Paperback ISBN: 979-8-9987737-3-0
Hardcover ISBN: 979-8-9987737-2-3
Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN): 2025917729
WorldCat: 1529938603
This was recommended to me by a person I met on an airplane traveling back from Peru. This story is an incredible one, beginning in Yungay in the late 1960s. It is based on true, historical events. My take is that this is a tale of what social constructs back then could inadvertently create. Damaged, accidentally and unknowingly heroic, unable to challenge a system stacked against you, but secretly finding ways to do just that. I love that the main character is that product, and there is so much meaning in the other characters in the story. It's also a major history lesson. Tragic, and true. Harrison Rose Tate is not your average writer. This book doesn't waste words and is never silly or full of itself. This author simply writes in their own, true voice, with a very refreshing and talented style.
- GoodReads Review
I'm a history major. I love how the story wraps around real, historical events. This short story is an epic tale. This deserves to be ranked MUCH higher. I literally couldn't put it down.
- Amazon Review
An absolutely compelling story. Worthy of your time. This is a writer who started out in corporate. In that regard, it shows in a good way. The storytelling style is so refreshing. There is none of that overly flashy penmanship that we see so much in literature lately. Just exceptional, clean writing. It draws you in. I give this my highest recommendation. Best I have read in quite a while.
- GoodReads Review
I couldn't believe I had never heard the true historical details that were part of this story. This book literally moved me to tears. I've never said this in a review before, but this is a "must read."
- LibraryThing Review
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