Reinbou: A Novel

Summary

The basis of the 2017 film adaptation by Andrés Curbelo and David Maler.

In 1976 Santo Domingo, Ángel Maceta uncovers the real story behind the murder of his father, Puro Maceta, ten years prior. In the process, events that unfolded during and after the war are revealed, unleashing a series of small revolutions in his community that in turn unravel other intrigues of what really took place during the Civil War of 1965.

Weaving together the brutal realities of war with the innocence of childhood imagination, Reinbou explores this era in Dominican society, a time when the United States sent Marines into the country to back a coup against Juan Bosch, the first democratically elected president of the Dominican Republic since the end of the brutal, three-decade-long dictatorship of the genocidal Rafael Trujillo. Moving between 1965 and 1976, we follow the revolutionary efforts of Puro and the transformative, feverish adventures of Ángel.

Told through the eyes of a child and a varied cast of friends, family, and neighbors, Reinbou explores the consequences of political and societal upheaval, corruption, and violence in modern Dominican society.