Short Synopsis
A daring, kaleidoscopic novel about the clash of empires and ideas in the sixteenth century that continue to reverberate throughout modernity—a story unlike anything you've ever heard before.

Full Synopsis
Sudden Death begins with a brutal tennis match that could decide the fate of the world. The bawdy Italian painter Caravaggio and the loutish Spanish poet Quevedo battle it out before a crowd that includes Galileo, Mary Magdalene, and a generation of popes who would throw Europe into the flames. In England, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII behead Anne Boleyn, and her crafty executioner transforms her legendary locks into the most sought-after tennis balls of the time. Across the ocean in Mexico, conquistador Hernán Cortés and his Mayan translator and lover, La Malinche, scheme and conquer, not knowing that their domestic comedy will change the world. And in a remote Mexican colony a bishop reads Thomas More's Utopia and thinks that instead of a parody, it's a manual.

In this mind-bending, prismatic novel, worlds collide, time coils, traditions break down. There are assassinations and executions, hallucinogenic mushrooms, utopias, carnal liaisons and papal dramas, artistic and religious revolutions, love stories and war stories. A dazzlingly original voice and a postmodern visionary, Álvaro Enrigue tells a grand adventure of the dawn of the modern era in this short, powerful punch of a novel.

"Narrator Fass excellently leads the listener among the many characters and changing time periods. His mastery of Spanish (both Castilian and Mexican), Italian, and Latin keeps the narrative fluid and the pacing just right." ---Booklist

"[E]nticing and written with a casual erudition that whispers to readers that, no matter the apparent surprises of the game, the author is in full control." ---Los Angeles Times

"[T]he reader can get lost in the profusion of historical figures." ---Publishers Weekly

"Readers will be intrigued by the conglomeration of characters and events…" ---Library Journal

"[Robert Fass's] approach allows the wonderfully eccentric text to speak for itself, enhanced by his authentic pronunciations as scenes cross international borders." ---AudioFile

Publishers Weekly Bestseller