The City of Your Final Destination

First published 2002

PEN/Faulkner 2003 · Finalist

“Omar Razaghi has made a grave error in judgment. A doctoral student at the University of Kansas, he had contacted the estate of the Latin American author Jules Gund, requesting permission to write Gund’s authorized biography. His request was denied, but Omar had already accepted a fellowship from the university on the basis of this project.

Now, with his girlfriend’s somewhat threatening encouragement, he realizes his only option is to travel to Uruguay and personally petition Gund’s three executors: his wife, Caroline; his mistress, Arden; and his brother, Adam.”

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“Omar’s unannounced arrival at Ochos Rios, the isolated and disintegrating Gund family estate, upsets the fragile balance of its eccentric inhabitants. Although both Arden and Caroline oppose the idea of a biography, Omar does have the support of the eminently practical Adam, and tries as best he can to persuade the two women.

But Caroline and Arden have their own mysterious reasons for not wanting Jules’s life to be scrutinized by an outsider, particularly one whose own life appears to be rather unexamined.