Angel Allegria is an escaped thief and murderer. He appears at the Po loverdo’s farm, isolated at the tip of Chile, and slits the parents’ throats but spares Paolo, their child. Angel’s motivation is simply his need for shelter and a hideout, and Paolo’s presence doesn’t threaten his safety. If anything about this book were humorous, we could attribute the parents’ murder in the opening scenes to the classical orphan trope. However, Bondoux has not written a comedy, and the murder is only the tip of an iceberg that chills readers’ sensibilities and leaves them asking questions for which there are no answers. 2007 USBBY Outstanding International Books List, 2007 Batchelder Honor Book, winner of the French Prix Sorcières. lmp

Originally published as Les Larmes de l’Assassin in French by Bayard Editions Jeunesse France, in 2003. Translated by Y.

On the afternoon when Angel Allegria arrives at the Poloverdos’ farmhouse, he kills the farmer and his wife. But he spares their child, Paolo–a young boy who will claim this as the day on which he was born. Together the killer and the boy begin a new life on this remote and rugged stretch of land in Chile.

Then Luis Secunda, a well-to-do and educated fellow from the city descends upon them. Paolo is caught in the paternal rivalry between the two men. But life resumes its course . . . until circumstances force the three to leave the farm. In doing so, Angel and Luis confront their pasts as well as their inevitable destinies–destinies that profoundly shape Paolo’s own future.