First published 2015
Nelson's life has stalled. His girlfriend cheats on him, his brother has fled to the United States, and his acting career goes nowhere in their unnamed South American city. He cares for his widowed mother and dreams of better things. Then he wins a starring role in a revival of The Idiot President, a legendary play by his hero Henry Nunez, former leader of the guerrilla theater collective Diciembre. The touring production takes Nelson beyond the city into countryside still marked by civil war. Night after night, he performs alongside his fellow actors and grows entangled in their messy, complicated lives. During one performance, an old betrayal surfaces and tears the troupe apart. A young narrator, obsessed with Nelson's story and mysteriously connected to these events, slowly reveals what happened to the aspiring actor through his own investigation.
Genres: drama, literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: South America
Period: Contemporary
384 pages · Paperback · Fourth Estate
Content warnings: violence