...and one to which it would do us very well to listen. Sepulveda's novel -- succinct yet full of beautiful writing -- is entertaining and compelling, but it also has a great lesson to teach about the way we interact with the natural world.

His main character -- the 'old man' of the title -- is very much a loner in his village, on a river on the verge of the dense Amazon jungle. He has experienced much joy and sorrow in his life -- and he has been sensitive enough to learn from what he has seen and felt over the years. He is just literate enough to read the love stories he adores so much -- he has to sound out unfamiliar words repeatedly, savoring them, until he feels comfortable with them. His life has given him the wisdom and patience to give them the attention and respect they deserve -- and he views the world in which he lives, with all of its plants and animals and indigenous people, with the same healthy and reverent respect. It's too bad the same can't be said for the other settlers in the village -- or in most people in the world, for that matter.

The old man is very friendly with and knowledgeable in the ways of the Shuar Indians, who inhabit the forest -- he has even lived with them at one point in his life. His knowledge of the natural world makes him very valuable to his neighbors when a female ocelot goes on a killing spree -- he is pressed into service to hunt her down and kill her.

His thoughts on his world -- and the people around him -- are gently but convincingly communicated by Sepulveda's beautiful writing. This is a novel to savor, word by word -- much as some of the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Carlos Fuentes. It contains so much more than this slim volume would indicate at first glance. It's a wonderful read.

i picked up this book, without any expectations for it, because it looked like a thin and easy to read book; but i was thoroughly surprised by its beauty and its fluent translation. i learned much from this incredible novel, about ecuador, about ocelots; but most importantly i learned what we are doing to the depleting rain forests in the world, and how this is affecting both those who inhabit it and ourselves. this book is poignant and picaresque, and it seems to evoke a sense of passing of a world and a self that find it increasingly difficult to continue to exist in the current environmental conditions. i think everyone who loves animals, who is disturbed by the way technology is destroying the natural world, and who is fascinated with cultures and peoples should not give this book a miss.

I was introduced to this book through seeing the premiere of this movie at the Melbourne International Film Festival. I must stay that the screen adaptation of this book is moving and a delight to see, the photography and direction impressive and Richard Dreyfus as Bolivar is in my opinion his greatest acting achievement that I have seen to date.

Hugo Weaving plays the Dentist and puts in a superb performance.

Filmed on location in French Guyana, the director has succeeded in creating a film that, thanks to an excellent cast, is full of originality and humor, which leaves you with plenty to think about long after you leave the theatre.

At this stage it is unclear what sort of broad release this movie will see, so ask around and lobby for it.

Sepulveda's sparse but gripping story combines noir's thematic treatment of the past as an inescapable albatross with the noir trope...being made offers they can't refuse. When the Berlin Wall comes down, the race is on to trade in secrets from the past and retrieve long-hidden treasures. A mysterious man in a wheelchair enlists an exiled former Chilean revolutionary/guerilla/terrorist to return to his homeland and recover a cache of gold coins stolen by, and then from... Meanwhile, an ex-Stasi officer convinces a down-and-out former underling to do the same. For both men , this is a chance to break free their depressing conditions and make a new start, albeit a carrot with a considerable stick in the wings. As others have pointed out, Sepulveda has the same gift as the French writer Emmanel Carrere for being able to build tension with a bare minimum of plot and exposition. The settings are vivid and contrasting, from a gritty and racist modern Germany reminiscent of Jakob Arjourni's books, to the remote tip of Chile, which has whispers of "Smilla's Sense of Snow." Underlying the basic thriller plot is a somewhat wistful and bitter questioning of the relevance and meaning of radical movements of the 70s and 80s in the post-Cold War era. Indeed the central metaphor of the race for the gold is that everyone in the book is trying to forget the past and make do in a world decidedly more interested in money than ideology.

The book begins on an almost deserted road in Tierra del Feugo, where an old man receives a cryptic note of warning. The old man's past, and the actions which led him to flee to the Tierra del Feugo, have finally caught up with him. From there, the reader is taken to Hamburg, Germany. Juan Belmonte, constantly mistaken for a Turk by his neighbors, is a Chilean revolutionary in exile. One night a mysterious stranger and his ever faithful dog appear at Juan's place of work, a seedy strip club where Juan is the bouncer. Condescendingly summoned to a meeting set for the next day at a Hamburg insurance company, Juan immediately rebuffs the stranger. However, when he is fired from his bouncer job and his neighbors are petitioning to evict "the Turk," Juan decides that it is perhaps time for one more revolutionary-for-hire job, this one set in his native Chile. Meanwhile in Berlin, two former East German Stasi agents are also planning a trip to Chile..........

What follows is a suspenseful but always fun adventure. The action is fast paced and the plot is never slow. Although the tone of the book is sarcastic and the characters are satirized, a serious thread also runs through the book, notably the atrocities of the Pinochet regime and Chile's struggle to forget its dark past and focus and a new republic. For this as well as the character of Juan Belmonte, the author has drawn on his experience in exile during Chile's tumultuous period.

Altogether it is a fun little caper that is sure to be entertaining.

This book succeeds on the basis of the portrayal of two "losers" - one a former East German spy, the other a former Latin American terrorist. What are seemingly disparate threads are pulled together in a surprising but believable conclusion. A must-read for fans of The Man who Read Love Stories, fans of Emmanuel Carrere . . .

A touching story of a baby seagull Fortunata - her mom died but before she entrusted her egg to ... a cat! The image of the city from the point of view of Zorba the cat, the honesty and faithfulness to the promises, the friendship - are described in a poetical language with nuances of humour.
This book gave me the desire to fly!
(vola solo chi osa farlo - only who attempt can fly)
Maria Emma - a Polish/Italian poetess now settled in... Seattle

Rarely we have the opportunity to read a simple written book with such a courageous and childish message embeded within the pages. Once again Luis Sepulveda has tell us that only he who wishes to fly can do so. Superation. Read the book, read it again and most importantly, read this small book to your children and grandchildren. They will certainly know what to do next.
--tito lugo md

This book was disjointed. It was really hard to follow what was going on and where the author was going and why. The book seemed to be a compilation of miscellaneous stories about his life. Some of the stories made sense, while others were out of place and unintelligible. This made for a difficult read.

Full Circle is a book that cannot be read only once. The stories become like old freinds and are joys to visit with again and again.

a very honest and coolly written book. While the narrative appears disjointed at first, one realizes that if the author were to write all the details in chrono sequence, given that he has been travelling for years, it would have been several fat volumes. This is not srictly a travelogue in the sense of day 1 we did tis, day 2 that happened.. rather, its a collection of incidents and events that took place in the couirse of the author's travels, that illuminate life in the various places he has been.
I feel like hitting the road again, with no fixed destination in mind, no final goal, timeless...

Sepulveda es un maestro. Nos hace participes de su amor por el extremo sur de Chile, de su gente y tambien de tan nobles intereses como el salvaguardar del exterminio las ballenas.

Una novela cortita, fácil de leer, que en un primer momento te da la impresión de ser mejor de lo que en realidad es. El argumento es sencillo: el protagonista (el "viejo" del título) es un colono que se muda de la sierra a la selva para escapar de habladurías. Circunstancias de la vida hacen que conviva con los indios shuar durante muchos años, en los que aprende todo lo que hay que aprender sobre la selva y sus habitantes, humanos, animales y vegetales. La novela ofrece buenas imágenes de la vida en la frontera, y sus gentes. La descripción de la fauna es muy detallada. Al fin y al cabo esta novela es una proclama ecologista que pone en evidencia la mala gestión y el abuso que hacemos de la naturaleza. Desde un punto de vista literario, sin embargo, la historia es medio flojita, pero el lenguaje y la trama son simples, llanos.

Fue el primer libro de Sepulveda que lo escogi por azar y no me habia fallado. Me entretenia de su estilo de narrar la historia en selva amazonica ecuatoriana. Nos pone en delante los colores, sabores y aventuras de una vida que muy poca gente tuviera la suerte de experimentar y vivir.

El tema no se enfoca al titulo, sino se concentra en la vida un anciano, que perdio su amor, viviendo solo en una aldea muy interior de la selva amazonica, la cual recibe sus contactos con mundo de fuera por la visita de un barco cada seis meses. Y por este medio recibe su adquerimiento de novelas de amor de un dentista.

Su caracter vuelve en ser prominente cuando se encarga de cazar la bestia que ha matado a los visitantes y gente del pueblo.

I read this in Spanish of course and found it to be extremely readable. Those who would denigrate it's quality for political reasons I find in error. Well written, well plotted short novel by anyones' standards in any language. I can barely wait to read his next offering.