Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Biography, Literature & Literary studies

THE MASTERMIND

David Unger

Based on a true, ripped-from-the-headlines story, The Mastermind is a voyage into the noir heart of present-day Guatemala.

By all appearances, Guillermo Rosensweig is the epitome of success. He is a member of the Guatemalan elite, runs a successful law practice, has a wife and kids and a string of gorgeous lovers. Then one day he crosses paths with Maryam, a Lebanese beauty with whom he falls desperately in love . . . to the point that when he loses her, he sees no other option than to orchestrate his own death.

The Mastermind is based on the bizarre real-life story of Rodrigo Rosenberg, a Guatemalan attorney who, in 2009, planned his own assassination after leaving behind a video accusing Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom of his murder. (In April 2011, the New Yorker published an article by David Grann about Rosenberg which has been optioned by Matt Damon for his directorial debut.) This is a fascinating depiction of modern-day Guatemala and the corrupt, criminal, and threatening reality that permeates its society.

Guatemalan-born novelist David Unger was awarded his country’s Miguel Ángel Asturias National Prize in Literature for 2014, despite writing exclusively in English. He is the author of the novels The Price of Escape and Life in the Damn Tropics. His short stories and essays have appeared in Words Without Borders, Guernica, KGBBarLit, and Playboy Mexico. He has translated fourteen books from Spanish into English. He lives in Brooklyn.

Available products
Book Published 2016-04-05 by Akashic Books - Brooklyn (USA)
Book Published 2016-04-05 by Akashic Books - Brooklyn (USA)

Comments

Unger bases his latest novel on the true story of a Guatemalan lawyer who planned his own murder in 2009, fleshing out the story with healthy shots of sex and corruption. . . . The political elements in Unger’s story become more gripping through the eyes of his flawed protagonist. He’s especially good at subtly shifting the tone of the narrative so that danger signs build up around Guillermo before either he or the reader realizes.

World Spanish: Planeta

In The Mastermind, David Unger’s compelling antihero reminds us of the effects of privilege and corruption, and how that deadly combo can spill from the public to the private sphere. Unger’s Guillermo Rosensweig is on a hallucinatory journey in which everything seems to go right until it goes terribly, terribly wrong. I couldn’t put this down.

This novel by Guatemalan-born Unger (The Price of Escape, 2011) offers a compelling portrait of a country shattered by government corruption, civil war, mass murder, drug cartels, ordinary street crime, inequality, desperate poverty, and even the effects of globalization... The rich but tragic sense of place Unger develops in this intriguing literary thriller will appeal to lovers of international crime fiction.

In his new novel, David Unger offers us an insider’s guide to war- torn Guatemala and its unforgiving dynamics of power and class. Swaggering, visceral, and sharply astute, The Mastermind is a riveting account of one man’s high-stakes journey to self-reckoning.

David Unger has taken one of the strangest, most sinister affairs in Guatemalan history and, through the power of his imagination and mastery of his art, made it even stranger, richer, disturbingly more human and universal.

This novel contains so much background and capable storytelling that readers are likely to be blown away by the rich depths of David Unger’s writing. This is a book that pulls no punches . . . This is a compelling story that can easily be read in a single sitting. And, as in any good mystery, when things go wrong, the novel becomes that much more interesting. Even for readers with no interest in Guatemala per se, this is one worth reading for the sheer joy of the writing itself.