Novel
Matías, el apóstol suplente
Not translated into English
Julio de la Vega · 1971
Synopsis
Matías is the apostle who replaced Judas Iscariot: lots designated him when his die showed a higher number than Joseph Barsabbas's. He speaks from the first century, but in today's words, and his speech, a diary spoken aloud, alternates with the written diary of the guerrilla Inti Peredo, who also took the place of another; little by little the two voices merge. The Twelve appear now as a political party, now as a trade union, now as the Bolivian administration, and they reproach Matías for feeding the poor and welcoming the excluded.
Context
The book imitates biblical discourse and the lives of the apostles with an ironic intent, and has no plot in the usual sense: it rests on the verbal invention of its narrator. The communiqués and memoirs of the left-wing guerrillas of the sixties are parodied in it, which does not prevent Jane Okpala from reading in it a serious expression of liberation theology. Published in 1971 by Los Amigos del Libro, it was reissued in 1978, then by Santillana in 1998 with an introduction by Raquel Montenegro and Juan Carlos Orihuela.
Who it is for
In Spanish, with no French translation. It requires some knowledge of the Acts of the Apostles, and a willingness to accept two voices that cut each other off.
Prizes and reception
Honourable mention at the first Erich Guttentag competition, in 1969, before a jury chaired by Mario Vargas Llosa, and counted among the fifteen fundamental novels of the country.
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