Fujimori's Peru: Deception in the Public Sphere. By Catherine M. Conaghan. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. 328p. $29.95 cloth, $25.95 paper.

In her book, Catherine M. Conaghan traces the major events of the presidency of Alberto Fujimori, starting in 1990 with his rise to power out of political obscurity and continuing through his departure from office in disgrace in 2000 after winning a highly controversial third term. The author characterizes the Fujimori regime as a “permanent coup,” whereby government officials repeatedly eviscerated the country's constitution and subverted the rule of law. A central theme of the book is the Fujimori government's inability through various unsuccessful attempts to completely dominate the political discourse despite persistent and sophisticated efforts to control the public sphere. As Conaghan writes, “The history of the Fujimori presidency is a chronicle of wrongdoing and complicity, but it is also a story about resistance and the limits of public deception in modern politics” (p. 13). The book is enriched with excellent primary sources and recent investigative reports that became available only after the collapse of the regime, and which had not previously been so cohesively compiled into one comprehensive narrative.