Terra Nostra is one of the great masterpieces of modern Latin American fiction. This ambitious novel by Carlos Fuentes covers 20 centuries of European and American culture and prominently features the construction of El Escorial by Philip II.

The title, Latin for "Our Earth," is modeled on James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, and shifts unpredictably between the sixteenth century and the twentieth. It seeks the roots of contemporary Latin American society in the struggle between the conquistadors and indigenous Americans.

Fuentes skillfully blends a wide range of literary forms, stories within stories, Mexican and Spanish myth, and famous literary characters. This novel is both a historical epic and an apocalyptic vision of modern times.

Terra Nostra is a total work of art—a voyage to the edge of what only a novelist can see and say.