Schavelzon Graham Agencia literaria Barcelona

Death in Veracruz

NOVEA, OCEANO, 1985. 245 PAGES

Dying in the Gulf provides the setting for a mortal feud. On one side is the beautiful but perverse Anabela Guillaumin and her husband, the extravagant politician Francisco Rojano. On the other is the boss of an oil workers’ union, Lazaro Pizarro, an extraordinary product of the Mexican corporatist, authoritarian state. In the middle is the narrator of the story, an influential columnist, who is dragged into it by his love and friendship with Anabella and Riojano. Observing them as witness and arbiter is an unnamed character, the head of the political police of the country. He is the man responsible for public safety, the administrator of the state’s secrets and shadows.

Violence as an infallible political tool, the untouchable realm of love, negotiations that are incomprehensible to the powerless citizen and corruption as an all-encompassing language are just some of the elements featured in this novel by Héctor Aguilar Camín, in which he mercilessly portrays everyday life in Mexico. The novel was adapted for cinema in 1989, directed by Alejandro Pelayo and starring Blanca Guerra and Enrique Rocha.

'Death in Veracruz', by Aguilar Camín, in Kirkus Review

Destroy to create, an article of 'Death in Veracruz' by Aguilar Camín, in Los Angeles Book Review

Héctor Aguilar Camín interviewed by David Garza for Kirkus

"I read this novel 23 years after the first edition came out.

Time has passed but as a literary work it is still a relevant portrayal

of how power is exercised in Mexico. Many things have changed

in the last few years but much is also still the same."

Rubén Aguilar, Animal Político

PUBLISHED BY: Spanish OCÉANO / CAL Y ARENA / CIRCE / PLANETA / PRH | French SEUIL | Germany GALGENBERG | Italy DONZELLI | USA SCHAFFNER PRESS