American visa
Subtitle: a novel
By: by Juan de Recacoechea ; translated by Adrian Althoff ; with an afterword by Ilan Stavans.
Contributors: Althoff, Adrian.
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 2007
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 260
ISBN-13: 9781933354200
Work titles: American visa.
Description: "Armed with fake papers, a handful of gold nuggets, and a snazzy custom-made suit, an unemployed schoolteacher with a singular passion for detective fiction sets out from small-town Bolivia on a desperate quest for an American visa, his best hope for escaping his painful past and reuniting with his grown son in Miami." "Mario Alvarez's dream of emigration takes a tragicomic twist on the rough streets of La Paz, Bolivia, as he embarks on a series of Kafkaesque adventures, crossing paths with a colorful cast of hustlers, social outcasts, and crooked politicians - and initiates a romance with a straight-shooting prostitute named Blanca. Spurred on by his detective fantasies and his own tribulations, he hatches a plan to rob a wealthy gold dealer, a decision that draws him into a web of high-society corruption but also brings him closer than ever to obtaining his ticket to paradise."--BOOK JACKET.