The year is 2020. The Mexican President has provoked the United States by calling for the removal of US troops from Colombia and demanding higher prices for Mexico's oil. But the country's satellite communications system is controlled in Miami and suddenly Mexico is deprived of phone, fax and email. In a country where politicians never put anything in writing, letters are now the only way to communicate, leaving the private lives and true feelings of all brutally exposed. Especially regarding the hot topic of the day: Who will be the next President, the next to ascend the Eagle's Throne? As the characters struggle to identify and ally themselves to the future President, the letters fly ever faster. Who will be the victor? Handsome Nicolas Valdivia? Bald satyr Tacito de la Canal? Or the 'unsavoury' ex-President Cesar Leon? There are many questions to be answered before the last letter is sent.
Praise for Carlos Fuentes
The old gringo
"A dazzling novel that possesses the weight and resonance of myth the fierce magic of a remembered dream" The New York Times
The death of Artemio Cruz
"Remarkable in the scope of the human drama it pictures, the corrosive satire and sharp dialogue" The New York Times
The years with Laura Díaz
"Reading this magnificent novel is like stading beneath the dome of the Sistine Chapel... The breadth and enormity of this accomplishment is breathtaking" The Denver Post
This I Belive
"Engaging, offering surprising conclusions, provocations or turns of phrase... Put down the page-turner and dare to drin these full-bodied, red, shining words." Los Angeles Times Book Review
