Lost City Radio

Lost City Radio (2007), the debut novel of Peruvian-American author Daniel Alarcón, concerns three major characters living in a nameless South American country controlled by an Orwellian totalitarian regime that is reeling from a ten-year war, though no one can remember how the war started. According to Kirkus Reviews, “Alarcón has mapped a whole nation and given its war-torn history real depth—an impressive feat.”

Before introducing the major characters, Alarcón takes time to describe the grimly absurd situation faced by the residents of the nameless, Peru-like country of its setting. After the end of a brutal ten-year war, the regime in power has banned all native languages, replacing them with an Orwellian-style “newspeak” reminiscent of the book 1984. Moreover, the names of all villages are replaced by numbers. Odd numbers represent villages near bodies of water, and the higher the number, the more remote the village. One of the only forms of entertainment for the country’s residents is radio. Aside from the carefully-prepared government propaganda read by hosts, the most popular program is called “Lost City Radio.” This program is hosted by Norma, one of the book’s three protagonists, and it seeks to reunite families torn apart during the preceding war.

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Norma’s efforts to reunite displaced families stem from a deeply personal place. Her husband, Rey, disappears shortly before the end of the war as he is suspected of being a member of the Illegitimate Legion, or IL, a resistance group whose members are regularly hunted down, tortured, and killed. Norma’s position at the radio station is precarious, as any mention of the war or dissidents is harshly punished. For example, when one of her colleagues, Yerevan, makes an offhand mention of war-related persons or activities during his classical music show, he promptly disappears and is assumed dead.

Norma’s ability to connect to the people without running afoul of the government makes her something of a celebrity in the country. She also possesses what Alarcón describes as a “honey voice,” which further engenders her to the people. She begins to notice that many of the people calling into her show claiming to be missing persons are imposters. At first, this angers her. But later, she realizes it is a coping mechanism for those who have lost family members in the war. She recognizes that they are as much “lost” as the people missing or presumed dead.

One day, Rey’s name pops up on Norma’s list of missing people. His last known location is a village now referred to as 1797. At this point, Alarcón shifts the perspective to Rey, the second of the three main characters, as he describes his wartime activities unbeknownst to Norma. Indeed, he was captured during the war and sent to a detention facility where he was tortured. He never talks about his experiences there, but he regularly wakes up in the middle of the night screaming in the wake of horrifying nightmares that plague him.

The third character is an eleven-year-old named Victor who also hails from 1797. He is an orphan whose mother died after drowning. After arriving at the station, he builds a bond with Norma. Later, it is revealed that Victor is Rey’s illegitimate son.

Some of the most telling passages of Lost City Radio concern the fact that nobody quite remembers why the war started. Alarcón writes, "Had it begun with a voided election? Or the murder of a popular senator? Who could remember now?" He adds later, "Nearly a decade. How? He forgot now. Someone was angry about something. This someone convinced many hundreds and then many thousands more that their collective anger meant something. That it had to be acted upon. There was an event, wasn't there?... The war, he decided, would have happened anyway. It was unavoidable. It's a way of life in a country like ours."

These passages help illuminate the reason Alarcón chose to place his book in a nameless country: The story is universal for many living in third-world countries plagued by war. And so, to add too many details about how the war began or even the names of the places involved would threaten to dismantle that universality. This conceit is supported by an interview Alarcón provided to the San Francisco Chronicle in which he states, "If I were Pakistani or Kenyan, I could probably be writing a similar novel."

In this way, Lost City Radio deeply earns its comparisons to George Orwell’s 1984 by providing a non-specific parable that illuminates life during wartime no matter what side of the world you’re on; except of course that while Orwell's book takes place in a dystopian future, for Alarcón and his characters, the future is now.