Pink pigs in Paraguay – Shiva Naipaul Prize, 1997

John Gimlette, the award-winning travel writer and author of four books, was the winner of the Spectator/ Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for travel writing in 1997. The judges of that year, which included Sebastian Faulks, were unanimous in their choice.

To learn more about the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize, and how you can enter, click here. To read John Gimlette’s recent blog on what winning the prize meant to him, click here.

Pink pigs in Paraguay

John Gimlette

ALL THAT summer Asuncion had been gripped by a good murder. The body of a 14-year-old boy, horribly mutilated by a blow-torch, had been discovered in a wealthy suburb. The details of the story were never clear, but the press had shown a maddening indifference to the whole affair, doubtless on General Stroessner’s instructions. Perhaps his German priggishness had got the better of him or, more likely, he didn’t want his Paraguayans to speculate on the possibility that his police did not in fact have eyes and ears in every home.