One of the most significant novels in Latin American literature, written by Cuba's most important modern novelist—to win a bet with Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In the early 1970s, friends Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Augusto Roa Bastos and Alejo Carpentier reached a joint decision: they would each write a novel about the dictatorships then wreaking misery in Latin America. Garcia Marquez went on to write "The Autumn of the Patriarch" and Roa Bastos "I, the Supreme." The third novel in this remarkable trinity is "Reasons of State," hailed as the most significant novel ever to come out of Cuba. As with Garcia Marquez, "Reasons of State" is a bold story, boldly told —- daring in its perceptions, rich in lush detail, inventive in prose, and deadly compelling in its suspenseful plot. Inexplicably out of print for years, it tells the tale of the dictator of an unnamed Latin American country who has been living the life of luxury in high-society Paris. When news reaches him of a coup at home, he rushes back and crushes it with brutal military force. But returning to Paris he is given a chilly welcome, and learns that photographs of the atrocities have been circulating among his well-to-do friends. Meanwhile World War One has broken out, and another rebellion forces the dictator back across the ocean. As he struggles with the Marxist forces beginning to find footing in his own country, and Europe is devastated, Carpentier constructs a masterful and biting satire of the new world order.
Author
Writings of Cuban author, musicologist, and diplomat Alejo Carpentier influenced the development of magical realism; his novels include Lord, Praised Be Thou! (1933) and The Kingdom of This World (1949). Alejo Carpentier Blagoobrasoff, an essayist, greatly influenced Latin American literature during its "boom" period. Perhaps most important intellectual figure of the 20th century, this classically trained pianist and theorist of politics and literature produced avant-garde radio programming. Best known Carpentier also collaborated with such luminaries as Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, Georges Bataille, and Antonin Artaud. With Havana, he strongly self-identified throughout his life. People jailed and exiled him, who lived for many years in France and Venezuela but after the revolution of 1959 returned. He died in Paris, but survivors buried his body in Havana.
