I the Supreme

<p><em>I the Supreme</em>&nbsp;imagines a dialogue between the nineteenth-century Paraguayan dictator known as Dr. Francia and Policarpo Pati&ntilde;o, his secretary and only companion. The opening pages present a sign that they had found nailed to the wall of a cathedral, purportedly written by Dr. Francia himself and ordering the execution of all of his servants upon his death. This sign is quickly revealed to be a forgery, which takes leader and secretary into a larger discussion about the nature of truth: "In the light of what Your Eminence says, even the truth appears to be a lie."<br /><br /> Their conversation broadens into an epic journey of the mind, stretching across the colonial history of their nation, filled with surrealist imagery, labyrinthine turns, and footnotes supplied by a mysterious "compiler." A towering achievement from a foundational author of modern Latin American literature,<em>&nbsp;I the Supreme&nbsp;</em>is a darkly comic, deeply moving meditation on power and its abuse&mdash;and on the role of language in making and unmaking whole worlds.</p>