Volver al Valle Oscuro, or Return to the Dark Valley, is a novel written by Santiago Gamboa and published in 2016 that follows the stories of five separate characters in a modern world filled with turmoil.

[2] Return to the Dark Valley follows the story of Manuela Beltran, a young female poet with a scarred emotional past; a former diplomat and writer referred to by other characters as "Consul"; Tertullian, a Neo-Nazi revivalist from Argentina who is allegedly the son of the Pope; Ferdinand Palacio, a Colombian priest converted to rebel warrior; and the late Arthur Rimbaud, the celebrated French poet with a complicated personality and lifestyle.

[3] While each character's life seems altogether separate from the other, their stories eventually merge to create an overarching plot line that highlights the theme of reconciliation with the past.

Also found in Part I is Tertullian's eccentric narrative on his history which serves the purpose of persuading the Consul that he is in fact the son of the Pope and introducing the reader to his convoluted past.

As the Consul narrates the present, he begins in Rome, but he quickly receives a mysterious text from his old friend, Juana, that tells him to travel to Madrid and rent a hotel room while awaiting her arrival.

When he lands in Madrid, he discovers that the Boko Haram terrorist group has attacked the Irish embassy in Spain and is holding a large number of hostages.

The two of them engage in an intimate romantic relationship until Araceli steals and plagiarizes Manuela's private poems, after which she moves to Spain and meets "Consul," one of the five major characters of the novel.

After becoming friends, they, along with the help of others, devise a plan to avenge Manuela's past by killing Freddy Otalora, her mother's boyfriend who sexually assaulted her many years before.

[4] "The Consul" is an ambiguous diplomat and writer who travels to Madrid, Spain, to meet up with a former acquaintance, Juana, after receiving an obscure note containing a meet-up location.

During this exploration, Consul sees a young girl, Manuela Beltran, being abused by who appears to be a lover, at which point he steps in, stops the attack, and is injured in the process.

He then wakes up in a prison cell where he meets Ferdinand Palacio, a priest who was involved as a rebel in the Colombian civil war and has a connection with Freddy Otalora.

After being released from prison, Consul meets up with Juana and becomes friends with Manuela as well, eventually helping her locate Freddy Otalora and reconcile with her dark past.

Having a former connection with Consul's acquaintance, Juana, Tertullian is the mastermind behind the operation to kidnap and kill Freddy Otalora, playing a significant role in the climactic ending of the novel.

While imprisoned, he reveals his story to Consul, and believing he was doing his duty to serve God and stop Communism, the priest played a role in guerrilla warfare and kidnapping of enemy soldiers.

[6] Rimbaud mustered hate for Charleville, the provincial town in which he was born, and made many different trips to wartime Paris to begin a new life but always found himself crawling back to his mother for support.

[3] Eventually, a prominent poet by the name of Paul Verlaine, captivated by Rimbaud's novel poetic style, sought out the young prodigy from Charleville, inviting him to his home in Paris.

In the later years of his life, Rimbaud began traveling the world and working in various places, including Germany, the Dutch colonies known as the East Indies, Scandinavia, Egypt, Cyprus, and Harar in addition to learning seven languages.

Rimbaud was happily settled in Harar, but when the British withdrew, he was forced to leave and soon concocted a failed business plan to sell weapons to a foreign king.

In certain aspects, as in Ferdinand Palacio's story, the nation is immensely divided by conflict; however, when Manuela, Consul, and Tertullian return to Colombia for revenge, the atmosphere is one of peace and reconciliation.