Reputations [Paperback]

A brilliant novel about the power of politics and personal memory from one of South America's literary stars, theNew York Timesbestselling author ofThe Sound of Things Falling.

Javier Mallarino is a living legend. He is his country's most influential political cartoonist, the consciousness of a nation. A man capable of repealing laws, overturning judges' decisions, destroying politicians' careers with his art. His weapons are pen and ink. Those in power fear him and pay him homage.

After four decades of a brilliant career, he's at the height of his powers. But this all changes when he's paid an unexpected visit from a young woman who upends his sense of personal history and forces him to re-evaluate his life and work, questioning his position in the world.

InReputations, Juan Gabriel Vásquez examines the weight of the past, how a public persona intersects with private histories, and the burdens and surprises of memory. In this intimate novel that recalls authors like Coetzee and Ian McEwan, Vásquez plumbs universal experiences to create a masterful story, one that reverberates long after you turn the final page.

Named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, Newsweek, the Guardian, and Kirkus The novel’s brilliance is that we, wanting to know what happened to that sleeping girl, become Mallarino’s accomplices; the novel’s genius is that we, greedy for certainty, become Mallarino’s prey. Like Samanta we are left with something unforgettable... Masterly.  —Yiyun Li,New York Times Book Review

Reputationsis a profound, exquisitely observed, suspenseful and deeply moving novel. It confirms his status as one of the very finest writers of our time.  —San Francisco Chronicle

[A]n account of an old cartoonist eyeing his past and the shifting forms of peló