March 30, 2007
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Adrian Althoff, a 2004 graduate of Amherst College, will join Bolivian novelist Juan de Recacoechea for a reading from Althoff’s new English translation of American Visa at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 9, in the Pruyne Lecture Hall (Fayerweather 115) at Amherst College. Sponsored by the Spanish department at Amherst, the reading is free and open to the public.

“Beautifully written, atmospheric and stylish in the manner of Chandler,” American Visa is “a smart, exotic crime fiction offering,” according to crime novelist George Pelecanos (The Night Gardener). Mario Alvarez is an unemployed schoolteacher with a singular passion for detective fiction, who, armed with fake papers, a handful of gold nuggets and a snazzy custom-made suit, sets out from a small-town in Bolivia on a quest for an American visa, his best hope for escaping his past and reuniting with his son in Miami.

Juan de Recacoechea was born in La Paz, Bolivia, and worked as a journalist in Europe for almost 20 years. After returning to his native country, he helped found Bolivia’s first state-run television network and dedicated himself to fiction writing. He is now the author of seven novels; American Visa is Recacoechea’s first novel translated into English.

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