Read by Armando Durán

In the court of the "King," everyone knows their place. But as the Artist wins hearts and egos with his ballads, uncomfortable truths emerge that shake the Kingdom to its core. Part surreal fable and part narco-lit romance, this prize-winning novel from Yuri Herrera questions the price of keeping your integrity in a world ruled by patronage and power. "[A] cunning little drama about the line separating art from agitprop." "His writing style is like nobody else's, a unique turn of language, a kind of poetic slang." "Herrera combines a dreamlike setting with vigorous style." "Short, suspenseful…outlandish and heartbreaking." "Strikingly beautiful and thematically rich…the novel is a powerful and memorable meditation on the social and economic value of art in a world ruled by the pursuit of power." "Kingdom Cons displays…a gritty and highly stylized realism played out by dramatic, archetypal characters [and] exemplifies, in a host of ways, what leads people to delusional behavior." "Herrera is a jumbler of cultural forms, both literary and vernacular. Kingdom Cons is narrated with a bardic omniscience, a mythopoetic tone satisfyingly coarsened by slangy dialogue. The musicality of the prose turns the slim novel into its own kind of narcocorrido."

Mode of access: World Wide Web