Sequels rarely live up to their progenitors, maybe because whatever truths impelled the initial impulse have been articulated; the second time out is often an exercise in literary nostalgia. Not so with Alan Cumyn’s new book, which continues a narrative begun in 1998 with Man of Bone. That much-praised novel, a finalist for Ontario’s Trillium Award, was the story of a junior Canadian diplomat caught in the political crossfire of a fictional third-world country called Santa Irene. Embracing the soul-shrivelling paradoxes of the human spirit, it was told in the utterly convincing voice of Bill Burridge, who was kidnapped, raped, and tortured by a rebel group.

Two years on, Cumyn has moved from small press (Goose Lane Editions) to big publisher, and Burridge, also two years on, is back in a new book with the Philip Rothesque title of Burridge Unbound. Now in Ottawa, Burridge has survived, written about his experience, and founded a human- rights organization. But he’s a mess – incontinent, mean, short-tempered, and distraught that he’s alienated his wife and young son.

Then events in Santa Irene take a strange turn: a miraculous, fragile peace prevails. The charismatic new leader, Suli Nylioko (“Nelson Mandela with a beautiful face”), summons Burridge to sit on a truth commission. He goes, still believing in some part of him that something can be salvaged out of the firestorm of wrecked beliefs and good intentions. Happily, he brings along his awfully nice nurse, Joanne – it would have been harder on us all if he hadn’t.

The book takes on the dimensions of a thriller, taut, mesmerizing, horrific. It isn’t easy reading, but Cumyn is such a fine writer that he holds us fascinated. Having investigated human rights in various countries with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada for eight years, he handles his material with complete authority. Burridge Unbound is slightly more plot-driven than its predecessor; if we dig to find something critical to say, it might be that this book lacks the freshness of the first. But then, Bill Burridge has lost some freshness too.