Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW, Santa Monica, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Today I'm delighted and honored to have as my guest, Carlos Fuentes, whose new novel,

The Eagle's Throne, has just been published by Random House.

Now, you know, to talk about the classic books that Flentes has written,

including the death of Artimio Cruz, the good conscience,

Aura, Distant Relations, Terra Nostra, the old gringo,

is to talk about some of the most significant literature of the century.

The new book is his entry, I would say, after Hydrahead.

It's the political novel, the novel about politics.

Although it is written in letters among some 25 or so people, it is, I think,

a vessel in which ideas, particularly satirical ideas about politics, can be expressed

and anonymized.

It's a consideration of what the political network means in life, in

politics, in psychology, in love. And I wanted to ask you, first of all, is this a satire?

It is indeed. You hit the nail on the head. I had the purpose of writing a satire, an almost swiftian satire, well-knowing

that there is little place for tenderness or love or other things that I associate with the novel,

but that satire kind of excludes. It becomes very trenchant. It has to be very direct and even bitter at times,

...