"Lowry's masterpiece...has a claim to being regarded as one of the ten most consequential works fo fiction produced in [the twentieth] century." — Los Angeles TimesGeoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. His debilitating malaise is drinking, an activity that has overshadowed his life. On the most fateful day of the consul's life—the Day of the Dead—his wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexi