On Mexican Time: A Home in San Miguel

What followed was a love affair with a country and its people that has endured. On Mexican Time is a lyrical attempt to capture the Mexican magic that bewitched the two of them. Cohan introduces us to a quirky cast of Mexicans and expats, including murderers, idealists, philanderers, and writers. Spanning 15 years, the book conveys something of the curiously intangible passage of time, as we watch girls become mothers, marriages drift apart, and friends come and go. The text is rich with sensuous details, and Cohan is excellent at conveying the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of a country that he clearly adores.

On Mexican Time is much less of a glib chronicle than other books of the "charming new life in paradise" genre. Although he is not averse to the odd moment of portentousness, Cohan makes a gentle and elegant guide through the experiences of expat life in San Miguel. --Toby Green

Product Description
Read by the author
Three Cassettes, approx. 5 hours, 15 minutes

When Los Angeles-based novelist Tony Cohan and his artist wife Masako visited central Mexico one winter, they fell under the spell of a place where the pace of life is leisurely, the cobblestone streets and sun-splashed plazas are enchanting, and the sights and sounds of daily fiestas fill the air.

Awakened to needs they didn't know they had, they returned to California, sold their house, and cast off for a new life in San Miguel de Allende. On Mexican Time is Cohan's passionate, evocatively written memoir of how he and his wife found a new home and a new lease on life in this charming 16th century hill town.

In an alternately humorous and poignant narrative, Cohan recounts how they absorb the town's sensual ambiance, eventually find and refurbish a crumbling 250-year old house, and become entwined in the endless drama of Mexican life. From peso devaluations and water shortages to the local legend of a man who was "killed twice" and the romantic entanglements of their handyman. On Mexican Time captures the indelible characters, little tragedies, and curious incidences of life in a distinctive Mexican town. At the same time it enfolds readers into the delights of one of the world's most desirable travel destinations.

Brimming with mystery, joy and hilarity, On Mexican Time is a stirring, seductive celebration of another way of life a tale of Americans who, finding a home in Mexico, find themselves anew.