ALFAGUARA NOVEL PRIZE 2023
Life is a long journey toward goodbye, and there are those who dare to face each stage head-on.
A tragicomic novel about longevity and its paradoxes
When Eufrasia Vela begins working as a caregiver for the elderly, she does not imagine that her profession will lead her to a profound life crossroads. The intimate bond she forms with Doña Carmen, Doctor Harrison, and Los Siete Magníficos — a group of elderly people as fragile as they are unforgettable — forces her to reconsider her role as a mother and sister, as well as her perspective on care, compassion, and dignity in the final stage of life.
Set in contemporary Lima, Cien cuyes addresses with humor and insight one of the great dilemmas of our time: we live longer than ever, but we are societies increasingly less capable of supporting those who age. Gustavo Rodríguez builds a story where the tragic and the comic coexist naturally, without moralizing or sentimental concessions, and where even the cuyes — guinea pigs loaded with meaning — take an unexpected place in the ethical map of the narrative.
Accompanied by a soundtrack ranging from huayno to jazz, from ballad to pop, and marked by the influence of cinema as a vital counterpoint, this novel offers a luminous reflection on care, the passage of time, and the closeness of death. A moving story that champions dignity to the very end and confirms Gustavo Rodríguez as one of the strongest voices in Spanish-language narrative.
