Avenue of Mysteries

Irving's (A Widow for One Year) new novel centers on accomplished novelist Juan Diego Guerro, who is on a pilgrimage to the Philippines to keep a promise he made decades ago as a young boy living in a trash dump in Oaxaca, Mexico. During his travels, Juan Diego is taken under the wing of an attractive mother and daughter duo who appear and disappear at will. In an attempt to keep up with them, Juan Diego mixes up his doses of Viagra and the beta-blocker Lopressor, possibly causing him to have vivid dreams of his youth. Through these flashbacks, listeners learn that, despite living in abject poverty, the young Juan Diego, a self-taught reader, was able to enrich his world through the books that others had thrown away. Irving's outlandish and original characters, including Juan Diego's mind-reading sister Lupe, two ineffectual but endearing Jesuit priests, a transvestite, and a troupe of circus performers, are brought to life by narrator Armondo Duran. While it is bursting with humor and fantastic characters and events, the author's latest novel is also a compelling exploration of the human condition.