Poor Man's Wealth

(Paperback)

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Part fable, part love story, part comi-tragedy, Poor Man's Wealth is narrated, somewhat unreliably, by El Gordo - the Fat One. He is the mayor of Higot, a dusty village in an unnamed Spanish-speaking country under military rule. He and the secret Marisol Committee - a group of local councillors - dream up a plan to save the village from economic death and the exodus of its young people, especially now that tobacco - their one source of income - is a suspect crop. They start a hoax. El Gordo, whose charming English comes via a library bequeathed to him, argues that the hoax which so changes the life of Higot is no more a deception than, say, the Loch Ness Monster, Ireland's Blarney Stone, the Colossus of Rhodes...Can they pull it off and attract tourists to unattractive Higot Will the hunchback Bartolomeo, a sex scandal involving a bicycle, or the military junta blow the hoax apart, see its perpetrators 'disappeared' El Gordo takes the reader on a joyous, witty and wise journey through the travails of his village...and his heart.

Author Bio

Rod Usher returns to fiction after a long break. His first novel, A MAN OF MARBLES (Angus&Robertson, 1989, 1995) was highly praised by reviewers, as was his second novel, FLORID STATES (Simon & Schuster, 1990; Allison and Busby (UK), 1999), which was shortlisted for the MIND Book of the Year award. Rods poetry is frequently published in Australian litmags such as QUADRANT, ISLAND and MEANJIN. Posts he has held include Literary Editor of THE AGE, chief sub-editor of THE SUNDAY TIMES (London), and senior writer for TIME MAGAZINE's European edition.