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.