The Truce
  • Published: 24 September 2015
  • ISBN: 9780141396859
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $29.99

The Truce

The Diary of Martín Santomé

Formats & editions
EBook
27 Aug 2015
Paperback
24 Sep 2015
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For the first time this Latin American bestseller is published in Penguin Modern Classics

'Perhaps that moment had been exceptional, but still, I felt alive. That pressure on my chest means being alive.'

Forty-nine, with a kind face, no serious ailments (apart from varicose veins on his ankles), a good salary and three moody children, widowed accountant Martín Santomé is about to retire. He assumes he'll take up gardening, or the guitar, or whatever retired people do. What he least expects is to fall passionately in love with his shy young employee Laura Avellaneda. As they embark upon an affair, happy and irresponsible, Martín begins to feel the weight of his quiet existence lift - until, out of nowhere, their joy is cut short.

The intimate, heartbreaking diary of an ordinary man who is reborn when he falls in love one final time, this beloved Latin American novel has been translated into twenty languages and sold millions of copies worldwide, and is now published in Penguin Classics for the first time.
  • Published: 24 September 2015
  • ISBN: 9780141396859
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $29.99
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Praise for The Truce

In this book, all the emotions of your life are identified, named and renamed. When you read it, you won't believe that you've felt so much

Roberto Saviano

Arresting... emotionally astute, melancholic, uplifting and tragic... This book was written in 1960 and now, deservedly, it is a Penguin Modern Classic

London Evening Standard

The Truce remains a Latin American classic. Expertly translated here by Harry Morales, it is a simple tale about a straightforward man who falls in love with a younger woman - until disaster strikes and wrenches them apart... Intimate and moving, this novel is a real find

Rosemary Goring, Herald Scotland

This 1960 Latin American classic had me laughing, blubbing and eager to discover more of Benedetti's books... If you imagine that being 50 heralds a life of daytime TV, cocoa and slippers, then this life-enhancing novel will shatter your dread

Val Hennessy, Daily Mail