John Manuel Arias - Crocodilopolis

To be held at Solid State Books on H St. NE

From the author of national bestseller, GMA Buzz Pick, and B&N Discover Pick Where There Was Fire comes a gripping tale of sibling rivalry, family secrets, and the fate of a nation.

Once a powerful, cold-blooded politician in Costa Rica, Seth Oreamundo is now living in exile in Washington, D.C.—and his younger brother Osario is to blame. Born into a corrupt political dynasty and raised on a seemingly idyllic coffee estate, the Oreamundo brothers were destined for greatness. But a dark family secret and a scandalous double crossing sent their lives into a tailspin, changing the country forever.
Osario must pay, and Seth decides the only way to do so is to return home to Costa Rica with the goal of feeding his brother to the infamous river crocodiles of their childhood. What follows is a spellbinding story of revenge alternating between Seth’s murderous plans and memories of the brothers’ upbringing. With the wisdom of biblical myth and the soapy wit of a telenovela, Crocodilopolis is a masterful interrogation of power, masculinity, destiny, and legacy from a literary star on the rise.

John Manuel Arias is a queer, Costa Rican American poet and author of the national bestselling novel Where There Was Fire. A Canto Mundo fellow and an alumnus of the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, his work has been published in Harper's Bazaar, The Kenyon Review, PANK, The Rumpus, and Akashic Books. He has lived in Washington D.C.; Brooklyn, New York; and in San José, Costa Rica with his grandmother and four ghosts.

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