Last Days of el Comandante

About this book

"Alberto Barrera Tyszka's Patria o muerte is a thriller set at the time of Hugo Chávez's impending death and the frenzy that it sets off in Venezuela. The retired oncologist Miguel Sanabria lives on edge, and his skepticism about the diagnosis of Chávez's illness seems to put him at odds with the world around him, which is becoming increasingly combustible. Sanabria's extremist anti-Chávez wife threatens to act unwisely, and his nephew Vladimir arrives from Cuba with a secret recording of Chávez's voice and asks that his uncle conceal it--a life-threatening promise. His neighbor Fredy Lacuna, an unemployed journalist, is desperate for money and takes on a job writing and investigating Chávez's health condition. Lacuna leaves for Cuba while his wife, unbeknown to him, is pressured to leave their rented apartment by the owner. In a nearby neighborhood, a ten-year-old girl pretends all is normal, though she has been living on her own after her mother was shot dead outside their home. Her only contact to the world is a boy she regularly messages online"--