Fiesta of Smoke

Against a backdrop of rebellion and intrigue, love between Javier Carteña, commander of insurgent Mexican forces, and Calypso Searcy, an American novelist at the pinnacle of her career, sizzles with passion across a broad sweep of history. Encompassing time from the Conquest of the 1500s to the present, the story races across space as well, from the forests of Chiapas to the city of Paris. There, an international investigative reporter named Hill picks up the swiftly vanishing trail of Calypso’s disappearance, and unwittingly becomes involved in one of the great dramas of the twentieth century and one of the great love stories of any age.


“Suzan Still’s FIESTA OF SMOKE is an extraordinary book, encompassing a vast time frame yet bringing the possibility of a contemporary Mexican revolution to vivid life through its beautifully tuned, disparate voices. With a tonality that at times echoes the quiet grace of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA, matched by passages that have the psychotic edginess of BREAKING BAD, Fiesta of Smoke is a book that will both compel and seduce you to read it to its haunting conclusion.” 

– Alexander Stuart, author of THE WAR ZONE and LIFE ON MARS 


“As with the brush of a muralist, Suzan Still has captured 50 years of the history of Mexico in vivid color. This passionate, non-linear novel explores the lives of three very different people involved in decades of political upheaval, and sounds the depth of injustices done for centuries there. Gripping in its detail, and daring in its reach, Fiesta of Smoke is a moving portrayal of the disparate cultures and complexity of a turbulent, beautiful country.” 

– M. E. Hirsh, author of KABUL and DREAMING BACK