the last book I ever read (What You Have Heard Is True by Carolyn Forché, excerpt seven)

from What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance by Carolyn Forché:

“Anostos,” he continued, picking up where he had left off, “is the name of the fatherland but is also its savior. The lost Mayans are like the Valkryies, celebrated by the great composer Wilhelm Richard Wagner. You have certainly heard his music? It was played loudly from the helicopters during a particularly brilliant sequence in the film Apocalypse Now. Sure you have seen this film?”

I couldn’t look at Leonel, who was busy stabbing his breakfast with a fork.