Currently Reading: La Guerra del Fin del Mundo

I'm currently reading La Guerra del Fin del Mundo by Mario Vargas Llosa. It's a historical novel about a rebellion that occurred in Brazil at the turn of the century. The story itself is fascinating. The author alternates between different characters at different times to tell the story.

The only other book I've read in Spanish is by the Chilean writer Isabel Allende, her novel La Casa de los Espiritus. It's one of my favorite novels, I love the tinge of magical realism, and also the sense of history and passage of time that allows the breadth of the story to develop. I first became interested in the idea of magical realism through painting. Ivan Albright, my favorite painter, who hails from Chicago by the way, was considered a magical realist, except his work was very dark and focused on death and decay.