Carlos Fonseca Interviewed by Boyd Tonkin

Writer and academic Carlos Fonseca talks about his novels, Colonel Lagrimas and Natural History, and about his thoughts on Latin American literature and culture.

Fonseca’s debut novel, Colonel Lagrimas, is loosely based on the life of the eccentric mathematician Alexander Grothendieck. It is an allegory of our hyper-informed age and of the clash between European and Latin American history. The novel spans history, politics, literature, mathematics and philosophy to build a story of the forces that have created the modern world. In Natural History, Fonseca investigates the frontiers between art, science, politics, and religion through the relationship between the curator of a natural history museum and a celebrated fashion designer and through a cast of characters.

Fonseca is lecturer in Latin American literature and culture at the University of Cambridge. His book of essays, La lucidez del miope, won the Costa Rican national prize for literature. Here he talks to author, journalist, literary critic and chair of the 2016 International Booker Boyd Tonkin.

The event is part of the festival’s programme of Spanish and Latin American literature and culture.