Book Review: ‘Short War,’ by Lily Meyer

Key Facts

Gabriel is 16, Jewish, American; he came to Santiago with his family as “a monolingual 8-year-old terrified to make eye contact with the school priests or anyone else” and is barely more confident now.
Gabriel knows his father peddles lies about President Salvador Allende to American audiences; when he goes rummaging in his father’s office, he realizes that the C.I.A. will orchestrate a takeover.
In June, as Santiago is sealed off and Gabriel prepares to return to the United States, Caro tells him she’s pregnant.
Gabriel looms at the edges of her story — depressed and lonely in Chicago, calling Nico on weekends, too broken by loss to return to Santiago even now.