Ricardo is making himself sick over his obsession with the girl next door and Elias is hopelessly infatuated with a local prostitute. One lives in the bustle of Mexico City, the other in the quiet of a tiny Baja California town. They both find themselves in a world dominated by desire where "love begins to wither from the moment it takes root".

One of the most remarkable books of contemporary Mexican literature, The Obstacles is the story of young writers coming of age in a world dominated entirely by their own fictions. It tells, in alternating chapters, the stories of two teenagers, Ricardo and Elias, who are characters in each others' novels.Blurring our notions of reality and fiction, Eloy Urroz takes the reader into a world where characters invent characters and challenge their creators. And the book's conclusion--in which a surprising connection between Ricardo and Elias is revealed--shows that not even fiction can be controlled in a world of such incredible unpredictability.