The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck starts when Ella Lynch, a divorcee living in Paris in 1854, meets Francisco Solano Lopez, the heir to the Paraguayan throne. Ella becomes Franco’s mistress and agrees to move to Paraguay with him where she constantly fights with his sisters. Franco wages war on both Argentina and Brazil and vows to fight to the end. Ella gives birth to several children and is ultimately forced to choose between them and Franco. She contemplates fleeing to France when she realizes that Franco is outnumbered and unlikely to win. Years after Franco’s death, Ella is back in Paris, disillusioned, and searching for people from her past who have long been deceased.
