On her fortieth birthday, Madame Wu carries out a decision she has been planning for a long time: she tells her husband that after twenty-four years their physical life together is now over and she wishes him to take a second wife. The House of Wu, one of the oldest and most revered in China, is thrown into an uproar by her decision, but Madame Wu will not be dissuaded and arranges for a young country girl to come take her place in bed.

Elegant and detached, Madame Wu orchestrates this change as she manages everything in the extended household of more than sixty relatives and servants. Alone in her own quarters, she relishes her freedom and reads books she has never been allowed to touch. When her son begins English lessons, she listens, and is soon learning from the foreigner, a free-thinking priest named Brother Andre, who will change her life.

Few books raise so many questions about the nature and roles of men and women, about self-discipline and happiness.

The Death of Artemio Cruz is a haunting voyage into the soul of modern Mexico. As the novel opens, Artemio Cruz, an all-powerful newspaper magnate and land baron, lies confined to his bed. In dreamlike flashes, he recalls the pivotal episodes of his life.

Carlos Fuentes masterfully manipulates this kaleidoscope of images with dazzling inventiveness, layering memory upon memory. From Cruz’s heroic campaigns during the Mexican Revolution, through his relentless climb from poverty to wealth, to his uneasy death, this novel captures the essence of a nation’s struggles and triumphs.

With virile, honest writing in a stream of ebbing consciousness, Fuentes explores the ironies of Mexican history, the burden of its past, and the anguish of its present. Perhaps Fuentes’s masterpiece, this book remains a cornerstone of Latin American fiction.