The False Years

"... a poetic, succinct novel that criticizes the corruption of the Mexican political system, criticizes the negative effects of social and family traditions and offers the reader a balanced inside view of Mexican contemporary life."
--Los Angeles Times

"Vicens... uses the primal father-son relationship to create an allegorical work haunted by questions of individual mortality and political conflict." --Publishers Weekly

"In The False Years, the dislocations, the strange blending of personality, the overwhelming presence of ghosts all create a magical fictional environment, one that illuminates Luis's most tortured question: 'Do you know what it is to remain at the edge of yourself,' he asks his father's shade, 'just looking at yourself?'"
--New York Times