Carlos Fuentes on "Destiny and Desire"

The acclaimed Mexican novelist talks about his new book and the violence in Mexico.

Carols Fuentes is a giant in Mexican literature, Mexican culture. He's author of The Old Gringo, The Death of Artemio Cruz, The Eagle’s Throne.

Now, Carlos Fuentes is writing about Mexico and life at a time when Mexican days are too-often brutally tinged with violent death.

His new novel is Desire and Destiny. And its narrator is a severed head, washed up on a Mexican beach. “I’m not what you would call a pleasant sight,” it says. And the master goes to work.

We speak with Mexican literary great Carlos Fuentes.
-Tom Ashbrook

Carlos Fuentes, celebrated Mexican novelist. He's author of more than twenty books, including Happy Families, The Eagle’s Throne, This I Believe, The Death of Artemio Cruz, and The Old Gringo. His latest novel is "Destiny and Desire." You can read an excerpt.

Read the Los Angeles Times' review of the new novel and New York Magazine's recent profile of Fuentes, "Still Booming."

Philip Bennett, professor of journalism and public policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. From 2005 to 2009, he was the managing editor of the Washington Post. He's also a former Latin America correspondent for the Boston Globe.