The Dissertation

To fulfill his Ph.D. requirement at an American university, Camilo Fuertes decides to write about his father, Leon Fuertes, the martyred president of Tinieblas. To complete this task, he descends into trances, raises his ancestors from the dead, and proceeds to question them about the risque family history. This novel posing as a dissertation on León Fuertes, the fictional president of a made-up Banana Republic is “still fresh, funny, and disturbingly relevant” ( Publishers Weekly , starred review). To fulfill his PhD requirement, Camilo Fuertes decides to write about his father León, the martyred president of Tinieblas, a small country in Latin America. As Camilo traces his family’s roots, we follow León along his twisted path through delinquency, learning, lust, and bravery to his historic position of leadership. At once a powerful vision of Latin American history and a brilliant parody of the academic form—complete with endnotes— The Dissertation is the second novel in Koster’s acclaimed Tinieblas trilogy, and an essential postmodern novel in the tradition of Vonnegut, Barth, and Nabokov. “One of the few books of the past 20 years that deserves to be called astonishing. It is a brilliant novel, structurally a marvel and, in all, a demonstration of elan as that quality seldom is experienced in a work of fiction.” — The Des Moines Register “Longtime Panama resident Koster portrays Latin America with a comedian’s sense of timing, a scholar’s sense of history, and a native’s fond despair.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Koster is that rare thing: a writer from the heart, passionate and uncompromising.” —John le Carré "The second book in R.M. Koster's highly acclaimed Tinieblas trilogy (following The Prince), The Dissertation is the story of--and a story by--Camilo Fuertes. To fulfill his Ph. D. requirement, Fuertes decides to write about his father, the martyred president of Tinieblas, a country in Latin America. We follow Leon as he winds his twisted path through delinquency, learning, bravery, and incest to the presidency. At once a powerful vision of Latin American history and a brilliant parody of the academic form--complete with endnotes!--The Dissertation is an essential postmodern novel in the tradition of Vonnegut, Barth and Nabokov, ready to be embraced by a new generation of readers"-- Provided by publisher