Novel, ALFAGUARA (May, 2016)
A posthumous novel by Carlos Fuentes
“Carlos Fuentes did not want to submit the manuscript to his publishers until Latin America’s oldest armed conflict had reached its end. The publication of Achilles coincides with what seems to be the final negotiation between the guerrillas and the Colombian government: the moment of truth, the end of unfinished business, the beginning of peace. This is the best time to read Carlos Fuentes’ posthumous novel.” Silvia Lemus
“Fuentes must have wondered whether he was entitled, as a Mexican, to talk about Colombia, to sing the fury of a Colombian Achilles (…). Fuentes’ works have left my generation this legacy: the Latin American novelist’s inalienable right to take over the entire world in fiction; or better yet, their obligation to disrespect borders.” Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Nexos
For Carlos Fuentes, Colombian guerrilla leader Carlos Pizarro is up there with Che Guevara and Emiliano Zapata, major figures whose life stories personify the turbulent recent history of Latin America.
Like Achilles, Carlos Pizarro represents the warrior’s fury as well as his rest. During his years as an M-19 guerrilla leader, Pizarro’s attempts to build a little utopia in the jungle would fail again and again. When he decided to abandon his armed struggle and submit to the laws of democracy, fate dealt Pizarro a cruel blow: soon after running for president of the Republic, he was shot to death aboard a plane by a common hit man.
Historical record, memory and fiction are masterfully mixed in Carlos Fuentes’ last novel, edited by Julio Ortega. An unsurpassable testimony of the history of Colombia, from the Bogotá riots of 1948 to the present day.