To the Last City

This isn't quite a novel. I feel for the author, because his ambition to write a novel is apparent on each page and embodied by the principal character. Literary fame is a common desire, but it becomes poignant when the author is aware of it, and aware of his shortcomings, and aware that he can't quite ever solve them.

In this case Thubron has the adventure story, the elements of an interesting interaction between characters, and the possibility of developing a moral and ethical theme. But he just can't build characters, can't give them life, can't break out of the habit of imagining each scene as it might appear in a movie. We see all that, and so does he, and we root for him, but what he has written just does not add up to a novel. A show more screenplay, yes, but not a novel. show less

A group of European tourists trek through the Andes to Vilcabamba the last city of the Incas. An English couple, a Belgian couple and a young Spanish seminarian. The landscape reeks of history. It's ghosts affect all of the travellers. Each react in a different way reflecting their characters and their background. Perhaps each is a facet of the author's own character. The party is doomed, just like the Incas. And the landscape absorbs their doom just as it did that of the Incas.

Cinco a Vilcabamba, Jacinto Antón, El País 16.08.2003: https://elpais.com/diario/2003/08/16/babelia/1060991419_850215.html