THE ANNOUNCEMENT

In 1985 two of my great friends died: Emir Rodríguez Monegal, the person who had best understood my books, and Jorge Renut, with whom I had enjoyed wonderful nocturnal adventures. Emir died of a sudden cancer; Jorge died of AIDS, the plague that, until then, had been for me nothing but a distant though persistent rumor; now it had become something real, palpable, obvious: the body of my friend was proof that, very soon, I could be in the same condition.