First published 1970
Geoffrey Firmin staggers through his final day in the Mexican town of Quauhnahuac on the Day of the Dead in 1938. The British consul has lost himself in mescal and tequila, watching his marriage to Yvonne crumble as his alcoholism consumes everything he once valued. His half-brother Hugh arrives, creating a tense triangle as old wounds surface between the three. Yvonne hopes to save their relationship and persuade Geoffrey to leave Mexico for a fresh start. But Geoffrey cannot escape the bottles that line every cantina, nor the self-hatred that drives him to drink. As the day progresses through festivals and confrontations, Geoffrey's choices lead him deeper into a spiral he cannot control. The novel captures twelve hours in which a man's entire world collapses, revealing how addiction destroys not just the drinker but everyone who loves him. This is a story about the terrible clarity that comes too late.
Genres: fiction, drama, literary-fiction, addiction, 20th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: addiction, self-destruction, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Mexico, Quauhnahuac
Period: 1938
Paperback · Plume
Content warnings: addiction, alcohol-abuse, depression, suicide