For many, many writers of my young generation, Carlos Fuentes was a master. We studied, pored over, all but traced his novels. Now, thirty years on, he is still master, undiminished. Laura Díaz is subtle, comprehensive, witty, and (as always with Fuentes) subversive in its views of the present as outcome of the past. This is Fuentes at the top" Richard Ford
"Laura Díaz is destined to become as memorable as Madame Bovary... Througgh the long and brilliant scope of his novel, Fuentes acknowledges that Laura Díaz is just one woman, that there are many other stories, and that the collective memory is vast... An important literary accomplishment"
Rodolfo Anaya, The Wasington Post Book World
"Fuentes plumments to the heart of vast histories that crisscross the globe and cover decades with amazing grace while demonstrating an affinity for the rich specificity that bringas scenes, characters and images to life" Karen Hollenbeck, The denver Post
From one of the world's greatest writer, this magical new novel weaves together the stiries of two couples, two eras, and two grand passions.
Gabriel Atlan-ferrara, a fabled orchestal conductor, and Inez Prada, a red-haired mexican dicva, are brought together in pasion by Berlioz's music for The Dammnation of Faust. Meanwhile, the mysterious tale of neh-el and Ah-nel the first lovers in humanhystory unfolds, seductively echoing the Faustioan pact of love and death. Linking these narratives is a beatiful crystal seal that belongs to Atlan_ferrara, its meaning an obsession and its power an enigma. Like the ligtha refracted through the seal, trhese stories radiate into prehistory and infinity, revealing Carlos fuentes at the height of his magical and realist powers. Inez, profound and beatiful, confirms his standing as one of the world`s preeminent novelist.
"Fuentes is masterful... The effect is a grand, passionate, poetically written book that plays out on the page much as the opera it centers on would play out the stage" Orlando Sentinel
"Inez is prismatic, structurally risky, at times dangerously melodramatic, overtly Faustian. It offers proof of Fuentes still hungry and inventive mind" The Baltimore Sun
Ninety-three-year-old Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara is a world-famous conductor who has given his life to music. On the eve of what may be his last public performance, he is stirred to reminisce about his past and his great love, the flame-haired Mexican diva Inez. As he reflects on their tempestuous relationship, another story emerges of the first-known meeting between man and woman. In this magical story of love, art, life and death, Berlioz's music for The Damnation of Faust brings Gabriel and Inez together and continues to resound on every page of this haunting work. "Passionate... a paean to music and musical genius, to romantic love, to the mysterious sources of language and creativity... Fuentes is at his inventive best. This is language made astonishingly new."
