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The 2004 Award

Inez by Carlos Fuentes

Inez by Carlos Fuentes
translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden

 

 

Nominated by:

  • Biblioteca Daniel Cosio Villegas of El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City, México
  • Stadt-und Universitatsbibliothek Bern, Bern, Switzerland

 

Publisher of Nominated Edition:
Farrar, Straus & Giroux ISBN 0156013614

 

the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors
ABOUT THE BOOK
Following the rich historical drama of The Years with Laura Diaz, Carlos Fuentes returns with an entirely different new work - a magical novel of love and art, life and death. Two narratives are intertwined here: one concerns Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, a fabled orchestra conductor, and his great passion for a red-haired Mexican diva, Inez Prada; the other is a mysterious, unforgettable telling of the first encounter in human history between a man and a woman. The dissonant drama of Berlioz's music for The Damnation of Faust, which brings Atlan-Ferrara and Inez together, resounds on every page of this haunting work, while the emergent love of neh-el and ah-nel - the original lovers - reminds us of the Faustian pact of love and death. Linking these two stories is a beautiful crystal seal that belongs to Atlan-Ferrara, it's meaning an enigma that obsesses him. It may be that this ancient, strange and seductive object gives its bearer the ability to read unknown languages and hear music of impossible beauty.
The duality of Inez mirrors two eras, one deeply remote and one perhaps yet to come, but the passions evoked in both transcend the limits of time and space.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carlos Fuentes, born in Panama in 1928, has taught at Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and many other universities. He is the author of more than a dozen novels - including, most recently, The Years with Laura Diaz, which was short-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2002 - as well as several works of non-fiction. In 1987, he was awarded the Cervantes Prize, the highest honour given to a Spanish-language writer. Mr. Fuentes divides his time between Mexico City and London, and lectures frequently in the United States.

Find out more about the author

Interview with the author with related links plus excerpt from Inez.

Review of Inez

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