Reasons of State

Alejo Carpentier · 1974 CE · Novel · Caribbean · Contemporary

The Head of State of an unnamed Latin American republic keeps a house off the Champs-Elysees, dines with academicians and quotes Descartes, and takes ship for home whenever a general revolts or a massacre needs supervising. His daughter shops, his consul flatters, and a silent young man known only as the Student organises against him. Carpentier's entry in the Latin American dictator novel, written in Paris while he served Cuba as cultural attache.

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