The last reader

Author's name: David Toscana

(I always keep a direct life experience in mind when I write) - David Toscana As the main character in this novel, Toscana attempts to interpret a part of the world through books, and in doing so, he introduces us to methods of criticism and reading, and sheds some light on the characteristics of good literature. In a later essay, "The Country That Stopped Reading," he recounts his encounter with the Undersecretary of Education in the state of Novolone, who was surprised by the writer's question about reading in schools: "In schools, we teach children to read." Toscana is forced to explain the difference between teaching reading and practicing reading, between reading street signs and engaging with timeless works of literature. This official ends up questioning the point of students reading Don Quixote when the institution's primary goal is to teach them to read daily newspapers! The Last Reader was written in Germany and takes place in a small—now famous—town in the middle of the Mexican desert. It contains a library whose books are of interest to no one except its curator, who devours the good books and leaves the bad ones to be prey to cockroaches. When a girl is found dead, he picks up fragments of novels and adds them to a detective story to lead the police to the presumed killer. The Mexican novelist describes his style as "unbridled realism," a clear departure from the prevailing Latin American wave of magical realism. He presents a narrative that observes lived experience in all its absurdity and strangeness, with a realistic bent that is free from the temptation of fantasy. The Last Reader won the Colima National Prize, first place in the José Fuentes Mares Prize, and the Antonin Artaud Prize. It was also shortlisted for the Ramlo Gallegos International Prize, the most important literary award in Latin America.