Miguel Ángel Asturias

Life lamenting death in the bars near the General Cemetery is the starting point for this snail-structured novel. Friday of Sorrows and the relationship between Tantanis and Ana Julia serve as the pretext for Miguel Ángel Asturias to expose the nature of power: the need to possess it, to retain it, and to denounce those who wield and abuse it in every social stratum and space. Asturias captures the soul of this society, a soul composed of thousands of souls—simple souls, petty souls, anguished souls, manipulative souls, loving souls, human souls.

In addition to narrating stories and characters, the language in Friday of Sorrows evokes images, sounds, smells, sensations, and thoughts, enabling the reader to immerse themselves and live through the scenes, to feel the slow or swift passage of time and people, to want to engage in the dialogues. With this novel, readers will hear the buzzing of the lamps hanging at the necropolis gate, buzzing that follows tiny storm rays among crackling coals, and soon after, the incandescent explosion of white, milky, eyeless light.