Lima, 1990s. Four teenage boys kidnap a teacher from their school. Years later, they look back on the event—one whose true story only they know. From international bestselling author Santiago Roncagliolo, a coming-of-age thriller that grabs you from the very first page.
In 1991 Peru, amid the brutal conflict between the authoritarian government of Fujimori and the Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path, four 15-year-old students at the Jesuit school La Inmaculada plot to intimidate their most feared teacher, Miss Pinglin. What starts as a prank turns into a kidnapping—and ends in her accidental death.
Manu, the group’s ringleader, idolizes his father, a soldier with PTSD after fighting guerrilla forces. His secret goal is to be expelled from school so he can join his father stationed in the jungle.
Beto is the “queer” kid—the soft-spoken, book-loving boy who doesn’t say “huevón” every three words. Every class had one. And every class bullied him.
Carlos, the only child of a constantly feuding couple, begins a relationship with Pamela, Miss Pinglin’s daughter.
And Moco, who lives in a run-down home with his alcoholic father after the death of his mother, finds escape in his VHS tapes and his beloved video camera.
All four boys are marked by loneliness, family dysfunction, and a need to assert dominance. Their hatred for Miss Pinglin escalates when she finds a gay pornographic tape that implicates Beto and threatens to reveal it to their families. Fearing the consequences, the boys break into her home to retrieve the tape. What begins as a scare tactic turns into a kidnapping—and ends in Pinglin’s death.
The boys are never implicated in the crime. Lack of evidence, Pamela’s silence, and a timely car bombing—one of the deadliest attacks in Peru’s history—shift police attention elsewhere. As the conflict between the guerrillas and the state intensifies, the murder of one schoolteacher fades into irrelevance.
Told from the shifting perspectives of its four protagonists, The Night of the Pins (La noche de los alfileres) reveals a spiral of fear, violence, and adolescent rage. It’s a haunting testament to how trauma, repression, and the desperate need to belong can lead to tragedy.
RELEVANT INFORMATION: Santiago Roncagliolo (Lima, 1975) is an award-winning Peruvian author known for exploring fear and evil through thrillers, noir fiction, and dark comedy, often merging political history with everyday experience. His seven novels have been published throughout the Spanish-speaking world and translated into over twenty languages.
His breakout novel Red April (Abril rojo) won the Alfaguara Prize and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in the UK. Roncagliolo also writes for television and film across the U.S., Mexico, Spain, Brazil, and Peru.
The Night of the Pins is more than just a thriller set in 1990s Lima. It’s a chilling portrait of masculinity forged in fear, violence, and authoritarianism. With a compelling multi-voice narrative, the novel dives deep into guilt, memory, and the impossibility of forgiveness in a country where institutional violence seeps into even the most intimate spaces. The story of these four teenagers mirrors a nation bleeding between terror and control.
Praise for the novel:
“A thriller of enormous literary quality.” – Juan Carlos Galindo, El País
“Powerful language, brilliant and agile prose.” – The New York Times
“A skilled writer with a bold, forceful voice.” – The Times Literary Supplement
“Every page, written with a steady hand, ends up pulling the reader in.” – La República (Peru)
“Far from seeking comfort in his stories, Roncagliolo is a master of psychological fiction with a capital P.” – Isabel Llauger, Qué Leer
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Limited Series, Feature Film, TV Movie
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish, Italian, Greek, Polish, Croatian
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