Los apóstatas

“Damn the day I decided to write this novel.” With this line, Gonzalo Celorio opens *The Apostates*, a work that, in its very writing process, unveils the secret and atrocious histories of its two protagonists: his brothers Eduardo and Miguel. These characters are compelled to embrace a religious vocation in which they both fail, but which, in different ways, marks them for life. After their apostasy, they face two contrasting destinies: one is drawn to liberation theology, works with indigenous communities in Mexico, and participates in the political process that ended the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua; the other dedicates himself to the study of Mexican Baroque architecture and becomes possessed by a satanic obsession that blinds him in his final days. A painful, critical, and denunciatory novel, *The Apostates* constructs before our eyes a harrowing portrait of a family, a time, and a country: Mexico.