The "war" is more than simply the manifestations of one man's loins. Don Emmanuel is but one soldier in a wider context. De Bernieres is here campaigning for a broader sense of justice than this semi-imaginary society has been experiencing. What is the justice in a village gathering to defend a local, perhaps the last, virgin from salacious soldiers, only to have a grenade slaughtering the inhabitants. The army, supposedly called up to defend the nation, proves its most rapacious element. How to halt their depredations becomes the focus of this intricately woven tale. In one deliciously described sally, the village uses a local, well, "experienced", young women to visit the army's camp with her charms - and infections, such as neisseria [google it!].

This thinly disguised tale of modern Columbia's stresses depicts a society topped by an oligarchy of vested interests. "Right" and "Left" are but easily swopped labels by elements that have no essential differences. The "natural rulers" are buttressed by a compliant church, which is far more concerned with its own interests than that of the resident peasantry. This agrarian foundation of the country, who have little enough for themselves, occupy remote villages while underpinning the urban society. They are ready victims, easily manipulated or simply ignored. Their attackers are many and defenders few - yet it is typical of de Bernieres' sense of irony that among their champions stands an Army General.

That de Bernieres has copped many awards is adequate testimony to his prowess. He entertains and informs with equal verve. A dash of fantasy added to this story brings home the fact that "religion" is a term requiring expanded definition. The new definition would encompass human feelings more intimately than our present models. Death, never welcome, becomes something less than absolute in this author's hands. If the images he depicts are but our memories of lost loved ones, perhaps we should spend more time celebrating them. These and other questions permeate this book while prompting us to confront and judge our own values. If that's de Bernieres' intent, he's succeeded admirably. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

This book is also very funny and compelling. If you have read Marquez and/or Vargas Llosa, and loved them, you will be in sympathy with the author's satirical take on magical realism and the horrors of life in South America. But without that background, the satire may be lost on you. The humour is very dark, and one cannot help but feel that if translated into Spanish it would probably be burnt in the streets from Bogota to Buenos Aires. That's the kind of humour I like, but I'm definitely not carrying it in my luggage.

Don't get me wrong, he is a very good writer and I did become very involved with the story and characters (particularly the frozen soldiers and plagues of giant cats), but always at the back of my mind was the thought that Louis was being very patronising and even possibly racist in his characterisations of South American people.

I also agree with other reviewers that the scenes of sexual violence can be shockingly graphic. Louis seems to rather enjoy writing these as much as the sickly sweet ones.

I don't think I will read the middle book and if anybody is undecided I would recommend they read Gabriel Garcia Marquez instead. At least he's South American.

Now the things I didn't like - mainly the style. He imitates the magic realism of a lot of Latin American writing, but lays it on a bit too thick. The repetition of people's entire names is normal in Spanish but in English it sounds like a new character is being introduced all the time, which struck me as an irritating verbal tic. You can tell the passages he wrote when he had a thesaurus next to him, and the ones where he couldn't be bothered (the style of "Capt Corelli" is more consistent in that regard). Another irritation is the constant repetition of little phrases that obviously please the author (if I ever hear the phrase "strawberries and hay" again, I don't know what I'll do - though that may be from one of the later books in the trilogy, I forget).

De Bernieres has been compared to Dickens, and I think that's fair in some ways. They both have a fantastic eye for the superficialities of place and people, but don't offer much in the way of insight - characterisation is not of interest to them; and they both lapse into icky sentimentality quite often. But de Bernieres' writing doesn't have the same unstoppable sledgehammer poetry.

I wouldn't recommend the rest of the trilogy, which essentially reworks the same themes - I had terrible difficulty getting through the other two books. This one is worth reading though.