Elke Wehr Book order (chronological)

A porn actor recounts his last job as a bodyguard for a suicidal billionaire's daughter; a horse race attendee becomes an unwitting witness to a murder plot during a casual conversation; a writer suffering from depression stops taking his medication to enhance his research on pain; a ghost meticulously describes the circumstances of his death and recalls the tormenting details of the time "when I was mortal." Murder, seduction, unwanted sex, apparitions, lies, and deceit—these themes are masterfully interwoven in twelve dense stories that will resonate with readers familiar with the author's work.

At a small gallery in Florence, a Peruvian writer happens upon a photograph of a tribal storyteller deep in the jungles of the Amazon. He is overcome with the eerie sense that he knows this man...that the storyteller is not an Indian at all but an old school friend, Saul Zuratas. As recollections of Zuratas flow through his mind, the writer begins to imagine Zuratas's transformation from a modern to a central member of the unacculturated Machiguenga tribe. Weaving the mysteries of identity, storytelling, and truth, Vargas Llosa has created a spellbinding tale of one man's journey from the modern world to our origins, abandoning one in order to find meaning in both.

El recurso del método, obra considerada una de las cumbres del género narrativo que podría denominarse "novela de dictador", narra la historia de un tirano ilustrado. El personaje representa una suma y amalgama de varios dictadore de América Latina. Es una de las creaciones más memorables del autor y un emblema perfecto de una figura histórica que aún hoy hace sentir su peso en el continente americano. Alejo Carpentier (Cuba, 1904-Francia, 1980) Educado en Francia, se formó en una cultura variada que incluyó, además de la literatura, la música y la arquitectura, conocimientos que luego volcó con admirable destreza en sus libros. Militante opositor a las dictaduras y gobiernos corruptos de su país, debió soportar la cárcel y el destierro en varias oportunidades.