#FridayReads: Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue

New book alert: Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue, Natasha Wimmer

Book blurb:

 A daring, kaleidoscopic novel about the clash of empires and ideas in the sixteenth century that continue to reverberate throughout modernity—a story unlike anything you’ve ever read before.

Sudden Death begins with a brutal tennis match that could decide the fate of the world. The bawdy Italian painter Caravaggio and the loutish Spanish poet Quevedo battle it out before a crowd that includes Galileo, Mary Magdalene, and a generation of popes who would throw Europe into the flames. In England, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII behead Anne Boleyn, and her crafty executioner transforms her legendary locks into the most sought-after tennis balls of the time. Across the ocean in Mexico, the last Aztec emperors play their own games, as conquistador Hernán Cortés and his Mayan translator and lover, La Malinche, scheme and conquer, fight and f**k, not knowing that their domestic comedy will change the world. And in a remote Mexican colony a bishop reads Thomas More’s Utopia and thinks that instead of a parody, it’s a manual.

In this mind-bending, prismatic novel, worlds collide, time coils, traditions break down. There are assassinations and executions, hallucinogenic mushrooms, utopias, carnal liaisons and papal dramas, artistic and religious revolutions, love stories and war stories. A dazzlingly original voice and a postmodern visionary, Álvaro Enrigue tells a grand adventure of the dawn of the modern era in this short, powerful punch of a novel. Game, set, match.

Álvaro Enrigue was a Cullman Center Fellow and a Fellow at the Princeton University Program in Latin American Studies. He has taught at New York University, Princeton University, the University of Maryland, and Columbia University. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Believer, The White Review, n+1, London Review of Books, El País, among others. This novel—his first translated into English—was awarded the prestigious Herralde Prize in Spain, the Elena Poniatowska International Novel Award in Mexico, and the Barcelona Prize for Fiction, and has been translated into many languages. Enrigue was born in Mexico and lives in New York City.

Natasha Wimmer’s translations include The Savage Detectives and 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. She lives in New York City.

Spread the love

More Articles for You

Latina/o Bloggers, Content Creators, Influencers: This Is Your Year

The Latina/o Bloggers Group is back and ready to uplift you. Join the community to tap into resources, connect with like-minded creators, and be part of something bigger than just a platform. Let’s rewrite the digital narrative together.

Spread the love
— Featured —

Nosferatu Reimagined: Mythology, Symbolism, & Storytelling in the Digital Age

When F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu first graced the silver screen in 1922, it set the stage for a century of fascination …

Spread the love

What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About Death, Technology, and Social Change

In a world where technology seems to dominate every facet of our lives, there’s something profoundly humbling about turning back …

Spread the love

Beyond Bread: Bakers in the Family, Pan de Agua and Casabe

I can picture us. Two, little rail-thin girls with long braided hair down our backs, holding hands as we walked …

Spread the love

How to Pull Back the Curtain: Heroes, Flaws, Boundaries and Creativity

I think a lot about exposure. I guess it comes with the territory of being a writer, and a communications …

Spread the love

Curating Caribbean Heritage: A List of Must-Read Books

This is how I honor and celebrate the diversity and richness of the islands and their cultural diasporas, reflecting on …

Spread the love