Dad's Diary

by Peter Golden

The airport was dank and unfamiliar. A cold breeze had smacked Dean in the face as soon as he had emerged from Rio de Janeiro’s Antonio Carlos Jobim International. Dean observed a cute looking couple to his left, gaping indulgently into each other’s eyes. All Dean had on this continent was himself, a rucksack and a diary. It was the diary of his estranged father Jack who had disappeared when Dean was a child.

Using memoirs from the diary and with the help of some new friends he meets in a Rio hostel Patrick, Zach and Greg, Dean traces the exact footprints of his father through Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. The boys have skirmishes with crocodiles, explore uninhabited islands and sleep under the stars on tranquil beaches in adventures that they will be able to tell their grandchildren.

When political unrest takes heave in Bolivia, Dean and his friends discover that there is no exit; all the roads out are blocked. Three of his friends are taken captive by the Bolivian army under suspicion of espionage. Dean travels to the capital La Paz with Irishman Patrick, unearthing some startling truths about his father along the way, which have the potential to change the course of Bolivian history and topple some of the most prominent political figures in Bolivia.

Dean starts to question whether he wants to unearth his father’s secretive past any further or whether his Dad Jack would be best left a distant memory.

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 19, 2014

About the author

Peter Golden is an award-winning journalist, historian, and novelist who has written nine books and interviewed Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush (41); Secretaries of State Kissinger, Haig, Shultz, and Eagleburger; Israeli Prime Ministers Rabin, Peres, and Shamir; and Soviet President Gorbachev. His first novel, Comeback Love, was praised by the novelist and reviewer Caroline Leavitt as an “extraordinary debut.” Wherever There Is Light, his second novel, was featured in New York Magazine’s Fall Preview issue, widely reviewed, and selected by the New Jersey Star-Ledger as one of the best books of 2016. His third novel, Nothing Is Forgotten, which explores the connection between the Holocaust and the Cold War, was published on April 10, 2018. New York Times bestselling author Lisa Wingate praised the novel as "the sort of book you won’t soon forget…Cold War Europe, lingering Nazi secrets, and the tragic history faced by millions of families not only bring this tale to life but will keep you turning the pages.”