2666

Across all five parts, 2666 documents the murders of hundreds of women in Santa Teresa in the 1990s. In this city, women are killed at a ratio far higher than the rest of Europe. Most of these murders remain unsolved. The sheer quantity of the murders represents an unknowable evil at the heart of society as depicted in the novel. Everyone is aware of the prevalence of these femicides, the novel suggests, but the extent of the violence has driven them into a state of numb alienation. The murders are not so much tolerated as they are a part of the ambient violence of modern existence. According to the residents of Santa Teresa, the murders are a force of nature that cannot be reckoned with rather than the product of brutal violence against women. The murders symbolize the state of the society as depicted in the novel, to the extent that the characters have internalized the violence and murder as a part of existence over which they have no control. They do not feel that they are able to stop the murders, just as they feel that they have no agency over their existence. Whether women are killed for sexual reasons, because they are organizing unions in their workplace, for money, or because they are targeted by a serial killer, most people in Santa Teresa feel helpless to do anything.