The Last Days of El Comandante

Alberto Barrera Tyszka, Rosalind Harvey

$39.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Quercus
27 August 2019

Fiction & Literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Fiction in translation; Violence in society

Venezuela 2012: The President's illness casts a shadow over the lives of his citizens - he divides opinion, but life without him is almost unimaginable.

Miguel Sanabria is a retired oncologist, ambivalent towards the President but caught between a virulently anti-Chavez wife and a equally vehement pro-Chavez brother. He is asked by his nephew to hide a mobile phone carrying secret footage that could shed new light on the President's condition.

His neighbour Fredy has found a fresh angle for a new book about Chavez, but to take advantage he must agree to a ""green-card"" marriage and leave his girlfriend and their son for two months, even as their landlady plots to repossess their home.

In another apartment live nine-year-old Maria and her neurotic, near-agoraphobic mother. Taken out of school to be educated at home, Maria

turns to internet chat rooms for company, while her mother's fears about the city's endemic violence are proved tragically prescient.

The fates and fortunes of these neighbours will prove inextricably entwined as the hour of the President's death draws ever closer.

REVIEWS FOR THE SICKNESS

""A great book"" Michael Morpurgo

""Powerful themes and powerful writing"" Susan Hill

Translated from the Spanish by Rosalind Harvey

By: Alberto Barrera Tyszka
Translated by: Rosalind Harvey
Imprint: Quercus
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 208mm, Width: 138mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 311g
ISBN: 9780857056115
ISBN 10: 0857056115
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 27 August 2019
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Alberto Barrera Tyszka, poet and novelist, is well known in Venezuela for his Sunday column in the newspaper El Nacional. He co-wrote the internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed Hugo Chavez (2007), the first biography of the Venezuelan president. His novel The Sickness won the prestigious Herralde Prize and was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Homeland or Death was the winner of the Tusquets Prize.

Reviews for The Last Days of El Comandante

Tyszka is a perceptive, original writer. - Irish Times. The Venezuelan Ian McEwan. The best novel about charisma I've read in a long time. Everything it tells us rings true. - Babelia His devilish ability to bring together distinct storylines that converge in the apotheosis of a brilliant finale is proof of Barrera's awareness of the finer points of deft and intelligent writing. - El Periodico. Barrera's prose is clear, rousing, borne of authenticity when it comes to expressing the contradictions of human beings. - La Vanguardia. Why is Alberto Barrera Tyzska's novel so good? Because, from the first phrase to the last, he keeps us interested, curious, and concerned for what will happen. Because this flair of his reveals a great deal of cultivation, study, and insight into the art of creating suspense. Because his ability to create a redoubtable literary space, which we inevitably associate with the International Sanatorium Berghof in The Magic Mountain, Leopold Bloom's Dublin, or mad Ahab's Pequod, is breathtaking. - El Nacional.