Carlos Fuentes Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Carlos Fuentes was one of the most famous writers from Mexico, who was best known for his essays and novels based on the fiction genre. He was particularly popular among the Spanish speaking authors of the 20th century. Most of the writings of author Fuentes influenced the contemporary Latin literature of America. He himself was influenced by the popular writings of the famous authors such as Cervantes, Juan Rulfo, Thomas Mann, James Joyce, Alfonso Reyes, Balzac, Proust, Stendhal, Faulkner, etc. Almost all the books written by author Fuentes have been translated into the English language as well as many other foreign languages all over the world. Author Fuentes was born on November 11, 1928 in the Panama City, Panama. Both his parents were Mexican by citizenship and as his father used to work as a diplomat, Fuentes had to spend his childhood in a number of places like Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Washington, etc. When he grew older into his twenties, he returned to Mexico. Since then, he has lived there until the year 1965. After several years in his profession as a writer, author Fuentes went on to marry the film star Rita Macedo in the year 1959. The two, however, got separated in the year 1973 due to the habit of Fuentes of being a habitual philanderer. He even alleged that he had love affairs with a number of film actresses, including Jean Seberg and Jeanne Moreau. Due to these reasons, Rita Macedo became extremely hurt and eventually decided to get separated from him.

When Rita came to know about the most recent scandal of author Fuentes, in which he had allegedly married to a journalist named Silvia Lemus and made her pregnant, she decided that she cannot live with him anymore. As a result, she ended her relationship with Fuentes. Author Carlos Fuentes followed the footsteps of his diplomat father during the later part of his life, he also joined in as a diplomat in the year 1965. Consequently, he served in numerous places like London, Paris, and a number of other capitals of the world. In the year 1978, he resigned from his post as the ambassador of France in order to protest against the appointment of the former Mexican president named Gustavo Diaz Ordaz as the ambassador of Spain. Other than his two successful professional careers, author Fuentes also used to teach at various courses at the well known universities like Harvard, Cambridge, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, George Mason, Penn, etc.

Author Fuentes had three children, of which only was able to survive. His son named Carlos Fuentes Lemus suffered from the complications related to hemophilia and eventually died in the year 1999, when he was 25 years old. One of his daughters named Natasha Fuentes Lemus died due to drug overdose in the year 2005 in the Mexico City. She was just 30 years old at that time. The only surviving child of author Fuentes is his daughter named Cecilia Fuentes Macedo. Fuentes himself died in the year 2012 at the age of 83 in Mexico City, Mexico. His dead body is cremated at a famous crematorium in Paris. He suffered a massive hemorrhage and was found collapsed by his doctor in his home located in Mexico City. He was immediately rushed to the Angeles del Pedregal hospital located in southern Mexico City, but was declared dead. The death news of author Fuentes was shared on Twitter by President of Mexico named Felipe Calderon. After that, many other popular personalities from all over the death mourned his death. Some of them were Salman Rushdie, Nobel laureate named Mario Vargas Llosa, President of France named Francois Hollande, etc. President Calderon ordered to give a state funeral to author Fuentes. His funeral cortege was attended by so many people that it stopped the traffic in the Mexico City for some time. The last rites of his funeral were held at Palacio de Bellas Artes and was attended by the President Felipe Calderon himself. Among the most successful written works of author Fuentes are Aura, Terra Nostra, The Death of Artemio Cruz, Christopher Unborn, The Old Gringo, etc. His successful novels helped him to win a number of awards throughout his literary career and also enabled him to to be called as the most celebrated author of Mexico.

One of the most successful books written by author Fuentes is titled as ‘The Good Conscience’. This book was released by the Farrar, Giroux, and Straus publishers in the year 1959. The book was actually the second novel of author Fuentes’ career and was set in Guanajuato, a provincial capital located in Central Mexico. At the beginning of the story, it is depicted that Guanajuato was once of the richest mining centers of the world. The Cellabos family is shown to hold the power of the city and their heir, Jaime Cellabos is depicted as being torn between the idealism of his Catholic education and youth, and his family’s practical reality. He finds his father to be a good man, but very weak. Jaime’s uncle is a very powerful man, but he uses his power for wrong purposes. In the middle of all the difficulties in his life, Jaime Cellabos tries to emerge as a good man like his father and have a good conscience. This is what actually forms the theme of the novel. One of the other initial novels written by author Fuentes was released under the title ‘Terra Nostra’. This novel was published by the Daily Archive Press in the year 2003. The main story described in the book is related to the history of South America and Spain, due to which, it serves as one of the greatest masterpieces of the modern Latin Fiction of America. Author Fuentes has very well described the instances of Indian Gods, Christianity, birth, passion, and death of the civilizations. It can be easily seen in the plot that author Fuentes has blend a wide variety of stories inside stories, literary forms, Spanish and Mexican myths, etc. Also, all the literary characters mentioned in the novel proved to be an apocalyptic vision of the modern times and historical epics. This book too went on to become highly successful in Mexico. After its translation into other languages, it also became popular, widely all over the world. The success helped author Fuentes to win the Premio International Award in the year 1977.