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Narrated by Noé Velázquez
Carlos FuentesUnabridged — 2 hours, 15 minutes
Narrated by Noé Velázquez
Carlos FuentesUnabridged — 2 hours, 15 minutes
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Hay un vampiro en la ciudad de México. Necesita tu sangre. Quiere tu vida. Desea a las personas que amas. Y no te quitará sólo eso.
¿Acaso no es la ciudad de México, con una población de 10 millones de habitantes y una fuerza policiaca a la que no le importan un par de personas desaparecidas, el hogar ideal para un vampiro moderno?
En la última novela escrita antes de su muerte, Carlos Fuentes propone una revisión de aquél personaje cuya crueldad mítica inspirara la novela Drácula de Bram Stoker.
No luche más, Navarro. Ignora usted los infinitos recursos de la muerte. Regrese a la maldición del trabajo, que para usted es una bendición, lo sé y lo entiendo. Usted vive la vida. Yo la codicio. Es una diferencia importante. Lo que nos une es que en este mundo todos usamos a todos, algunos ganamos, otros pierden. Resígnese.
Un viejo aristócrata europeo, el conde Vlad Radu, se instala con su hija en una mansión con pinta de monasterio en la ciudad de México. Tras soportar siglos de guerras y escasez de sangre humana en Europa, ha decidido trasladarse al otro lado del oceano Atlántico y reestablecer su imperio. Aunque para ello deba contratar los servicio de Yves Navarro, un abogado, y de su esposa Asunción, una agente de bienes raíces que guarda un misterioso parecido con una mujer retratada en una antigua fotografía...
La crítica ha opinado:
"Si le gustan las historias de vampiros y le hierve la sangre ver a lo que han quedado reducidos estos terroríficos seres, esta novela corta le devolverá la fe en el género." -Revista Soho-
"Vlad es una novela corta que se comienza a leer a las nueve de la noche, se termina a las 10 y te deja con el ojo como plato hasta las ocho de la mañana." -Xavier Velasco-
"Rompiendo con el cliché del vampiro bueno, lindo y guapo, y además romántico, el escritor mexicano Carlos Fuentes dio vida a 'Vlad', un vampiro bestial, cruel y milenario, que irrumpirá con verdaderas negras intenciones en la Ciudad de México." -El Economista-
The short novel Vlad…provides ample evidence of Fuentes's powerful abilities…somehow Fuentes refreshes tired tropes. The novel is genuinely scary…Will readers appreciate a novel that pivots between hilarity and fear, insightful characterization and flamboyant fountains of blood? Let's hope so, because Vlad displays the strengths of a great writer's late oeuvre to excellent effect.
—Jeff VanderMeer
Narrator Robert Fass’s crisp narration enhances this audio edition of Fuentes’s riff on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, in which the undead eponymous antihero travels to Mexico City for blood (having drained all of Europe’s supply). As in the original, the first-person narration is by a young attorney—one of many parallel plot developments that will bemuse Stoker fans. The Mexican setting calls for convincing Spanish accents, which Fass ably handles. He also demonstrates versatility in creating unique voices for the book’s many characters. As with other fantastic stories, listeners will only suspend disbelief if the story’s everyday elements are convincing. And Fass’s matter-of-fact delivery of passages such as the description of Navarro’s breakfast routine, lulls listeners into imagining that the supernatural elements are fully believable. A must for Dracula fans. A Dalkey Archive hardcover. (July)
In this short novel, Fuentes (1928–2012) follows the pattern of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but infuses the story with a modern sensibility and vivid imagery: a bedroom filled with eerily identical dolls all dressed in pink; a flock of bats that resemble monstrous winged rats, with “filthy, long, hairy ears.” In place of Stoker’s Jonathan Harker, Fuentes has lawyer Yves Navarro, devoted to his beautiful wife, Asunción, and young daughter, Magdalena. Navarro makes a house call to the title character, a mysterious and wealthy new resident in overcrowded and somewhat lawless Mexico City. When Yves sets out for his appointment one dark and stormy night, the door to Vlad’s elegant new home (procured by Asunción, a real estate agent) is answered by a hunchback servant, and the vampire even uses the classic Dracula line, “I never drink... wine.” Navarro, however, does lose consciousness, and wakes knowing neither where he is nor how he got there. By the time Navarro realizes the danger around him, he’s already in too deep. A deliciously barbed bagatelle from a fiction master, with perhaps a strain of allegory for a world devoured by rapaciousness. (July)
"A deliciously barbed bagatelle from a fiction master, with perhaps a strain of allegory for a world devoured by rapaciousness." - Publishers Weekly
10/01/2014
In his last published novel before he died, the iconic Fuentes dabbles in the gothic in a haunting tale of vampires whose hapless victims try to extricate themselves from a nefarious scheme.
The noted Mexican author provides a modern update of Dracula in which the Count moves to Mexico City in search of fresh blood. A lawyer has been assigned to find Vlad a very special home with tunnels, drains, and blacked-out windows. The attorney's wife locates the perfect house…and discovers some horrifying information about their new client. There is a satisfying mixture of old-world descriptive writing and contemporary horror—listeners will never look at a squirrel the same way again—and reader Robert Fass does an expert job of keeping the sometimes clunky narrative from overpowering the truly gut-churning terror. The ending is unexpected; credit goes to Fass for keeping readers guessing right up to the very last sentence. VERDICT Recommended for large public libraries and academic collections. ["For those who like the gothic or who are diehard Fuentes fans, go for it, but for others it may be more appropriate to pay him a fitting tribute in light of his recent passing by rereading some of his classics (The Death of Artemio Cruz or Old Gringo) and pass on this one," read the review of the Dalkey Archive hc, LJ 7/12.—Ed.]—Joseph L. Carlson, Vandenberg Air Force Base Lib., Lompoc, CA
VLAD is a modern sequel to the Dracula legend that feels oddly anemic. Written by the legendary Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, the novel seems more like a novella with lots of setup and a plot that ends as quickly as it begins. Robert Fass resists the urge to channel Bela Lugosi, even though the images conjured up resemble him. His deep, rich voice is hypnotic, just like the vampire himself. Fuentes finished the book shortly before his death, and one wonders if he’d planned to delve more deeply into the story of Dracula moving his home to Mexico City in search of fresh prey. Fass's calm, controlled voice adds to the deliberate creepiness of the work. M.S. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
| BN ID: | 2940175698108 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial |
| Publication date: | 03/17/2022 |
| Series: | Biblioteca Fuentes |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Language: | Spanish |
