On a hot, insomniac night at the Hotel Metropol, the novelist Carlos Fuentes steps onto his balcony only to find another man on the balcony next door. The other man asks for news of the social strife turning into revolution in the unnamed city below them. He reveals himself as the nineteenth-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, permitted to revisit earth once a year for twenty-four hours based on his theory of eternal return.
With tenderness and gallows humor, the novelist and the philosopher unflinchingly tell the story of the beginning of the revolution, its triumph, fanaticism, terror, and retrenchment: a story of love, friendship, family, commitment, passion, corruption, betrayal, violence, and hope.
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“With great versatility, narrator Robert Fass rises to Carlos Fuentes’ challenging masterpiece. This intricate psychological novel requires much attention from its narrator…[as] the audiobook jumps from inner monologue to character study, and Fass steers with control and sensitivity…Fass’ versatility is commendable and matches the meandering nature of the work. Though often humorous, Fass appropriately assesses the gravity of Fuentes’ account of Mexico’s political turbulence and avoids hammy German accents for the title character. His delivery ensures that the listener cannot fail to be moved by the beauty and horror of Mexico’s revolution.”
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AudioFile