Synopses & Reviews
When the spoilt and haughty Dona Constanza tries to divert a river to fill her swimming pool, she starts a running battle with the locals. The skirmishes are so severe that the Government dispatches a squadron of soldiers led by the fat, brutal and stupid Figueras to deal with them.
Despite visiting plagues of laughing fits and giant cats upon the troops, the villagers know that to escape the cruel and unusual tortures planned for them, they must run. Thus they plan to head for the mountains and start a new and convivial civilization.
The War of Don Emmanuels Nether Parts is the first novel in a trilogy set in South America. It won a Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1991.
Review
"De Bernieres, who taught in Colombia, captures the beauty, hope and desperation of Latin America as few other writers have done." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Louis de Bernieres is the direct line that runs through Dickens and Evelyn Waugh." A. S. Byatt, The Evening Standard
Review
"Walks a precarious edge between slapstick and pathos, never once losing its balance." Washington Post Book World
Synopsis
This rambunctious first novel by the author of the bestselling Corelli's Mandolin is set in an impoverished, violent, yet ravishingly beautiful country somewhere in South America. When the haughty Dona Constanza decides to divert a river to fill her swimming pool, the consequences are at once tragic, heroic, and outrageously funny.
About the Author
Louis de Bernieres, who lives in Norfolk, was selected as one of the twenty best Young Novelists in 1993. His first novel, The War of Don Emmanuels Nether Parts, won a Commonwealth Writers Prize and was followed shortly by two sequels, Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. His fourth novel, Captain Corellis Mandolin, won the Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best Book in 1995 and is now an international bestseller, having sold over 1.5 million copies.