Novel
The Death of Artemio Cruz
La muerte de Artemio Cruz
Carlos Fuentes · 1962
Synopsis
Mexico City, April 1959. Artemio Cruz, a magnate of the press, mines and land, is stricken on his return from a business trip and lies dying in his large house, between his wife Catalina and his daughter Teresa, who despise him, a priest and doctors. In fragments, he relives his life: the revolution, his love for Regina, who was killed, the betrayal of his comrades to save his skin, his marriage to the sister of a man who had been shot in order to take his lands, his son who died in Spain.
Context
The novel was published in 1962 by the Fondo de Cultura Económica. It alternates three voices, “I”, “you” and “he”, for a single consciousness, and makes Cruz's life a critique of the betrayal of the ideals of the revolution. Translated into English as early as 1964 by Sam Hileman, then by Alfred MacAdam in 1991, it is regarded as a foundational work of the modern Spanish American novel and as one of the key books of the boom.
Who it is for
A novel of three hundred pages with a fragmented structure, which demands attention; translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
One of its author's best-known works, regarded as a founding novel of modern Spanish-American literature.
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