The News from Paraguay

The News from Paraguay is a historical novel by Lily Tuck that begins in Paris in 1854. There Francisco Solano López, the son of Paraguay's ruler and the country's future dictator, courts Ella Lynch, a young and beautiful Irish courtesan, with extravagant gifts including a horse. Ella follows him across the ocean to Asunción, where she lives as his companion and the most powerful woman in a country very different from the Europe she knew. As Francisco takes power, she comes to share his grand imperial ambitions, which lead Paraguay into a catastrophic war with its neighbors. Told through shifting points of view, including those of servants, soldiers and townspeople, and through letters and short vivid scenes, the novel portrays love, ambition and the devastation one leader's arrogance can bring to a nation. It won the 2004 National Book Award for Fiction.