Perla
*Starred Review* Historically based on a recent, dark chapter in Argentina’s history, De Robertis’ latest novel centers on Perla Correa, a university student and daughter of a decorated naval officer in Buenos Aires. Having learned young that her powerfully loving father was on the wrong side of an unpopular regime, Perla, with the knowing confidence of a bright psychology student, has long repressed shame and guilt for the part she must intuit that her father played in displacing the nation’s désaparecidos: thousands who vanished and were never heard from again. In the book’s opening pages, Perla is surprised by a mysterious, dripping-wet intruder who has appeared in her living room without opening a door or dislocating a windowpane, a strange guest who can’t initially speak and asks only for water, which he chews hungrily. As the man discovers where he is and remembers where he has come from, water seeps from his skin, and Perla is drawn to tenderly care for him without, at first, understanding why. Lyrically combining into reality both the fantastic and the horrific, De Robertis weaves a beautiful and plain-faced tale about birth, rebirth, and the responsibility of inheritance from complex, startling history.      High-Demand Backstory: The author’s debut novel, The Invisible Mountain (2009), was an international best-seller and an O, The Oprah Magazine 2009 “Terrific Read.” --Annie Bostrom