This debut chronicles a tumultuous love affair between two young men from vastly different worlds during one extraordinary summer in Spain, in a meditation on identity, class, belonging and desire.
In Fuentes’s hands, the "about" of Countries of Origin — the cruelty of borders — is woven in seamlessly with the "not about" details that deepen and broaden Fuentes’s story ... Countries of Origin does what all memorable novels do: It leaves the reader’s world a little larger, airier and more forgiving than before.
Fuentes’ first novel is a marvel of verisimilitude with a superbly realized setting and a perfectly apposite tone. His treatment of his complex, empathetic characters is psychologically acute, and their evolving relationship is believable and always engrossing.
Lush but meandering ... The plot drifts by, with conflicts emerging and then swiftly disappearing... on the way to an implausible conclusion. It’s got style, but it’s light on substance.
