Synopses & Reviews
Eduardo Lalo is one of the most vital and unique voices of Latin American literature, but his work is relatively little known in the English-speaking world. That changes now: this masterful translation of his most celebrated novel,
Simoneandmdash;which won the 2013 Randoacute;mulo Gallegos International Novel Prizeandmdash;will introduce an English-language audience to this extraordinary literary talent.
A tale of alienation, love, suspense, imagination, and literature set on the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Simone tells the story of a self-educated Chinese immigrant student courting (and stalking) a disillusioned, unnamed writer who is struggling to make a name for himself in a place that is not exactly a hotbed of literary fame. By turns solipsistic and political, romantic and dark, Simone begins with the writerandrsquo;s frustrated, satiric observations on his native city and the banal life of the university where he teachesandmdash;forces utterly at odds with the sensuality of his writing. But, as mysterious messages and literary clues begin to appearandmdash;scrawled on sidewalks and walls, inside volumes set out in bookstores, left on his answering machine and under his windshield wiperandmdash;Simone progresses into a cat-and-mouse game between the writer and his mystery stalker. When the eponymous Simoneandrsquo;s identity is at last revealed, the writer finds in the life of this Chinese immigrant a plight not unlike his own. Traumatized and lonely, the pair moves towards bittersweet collaborations in passion, grief, and art.
Review
andldquo;A love story told with a content that is erotic and at the same time social and political.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A masterfully told adventure.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Laloandrsquo;s selection as . . . recipient of the prestigious Randoacute;mulo Gallegos International Novel Prize is an event of transcendental significance. This virtually unknown writer shares the honor with immortals like Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel Garcandiacute;a Marquez, Carlos Fuentes, Fernando del Paso, Abel Posse, Manuel Mejandiacute;a Vallejo, Arturo Uslar Pietri, Mempo Giardinelli, Javier Marandiacute;as, Angeles Mastretta, Roberto Bolaandntilde;o, Enrique Vila Matas, Fernando Vallejo, Isaac Rosa, Elena Poniatowska, William Ospina, and Ricardo Piglia. But if the distinction conferred to this intriguing writer is important in literary terms, even more interesting is the recognition that is givenandmdash;through his workandmdash;to a nation that is not recognized as such, yet. . . . Against all odds, Laloandrsquo;s voice was able to transcend the andlsquo;dead zoneandrsquo; of colonialism, to bring to life not only a great novel that debunks preconceptions of Spanish-language literature in less than two hundred pages, but also the clairvoyant possibility of a nation.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Simone has the stuff of the great literary works . . . . The novel is a good example showing that literature in Puerto Rico, like the history of the country, is made of paradoxical relationships of love and hate, of liminality and darkness, most always in the contingency of the contradictory. But, in any case, without opposites there is no progression; without antithesis, there is no synthesis.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A well-told story, where the human condition emerges as the center of the plot: the characteristic miseries, the fears, the anxieties, the need to be recognized/loved/taken into account by the other.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;There is something magnetic with the names in Simone. . . . The condition of strangeness is radicalized. All are equally foreign in this San Juan, the narrator as well as Li. . . . The relationship between the narrator and Li can also be read as an exploration, not without pathos and self-absorption, of the abyss that separates them. If a writer has to be, as we read in the novel, andlsquo;an athlete of defeat,andrsquo; the same requirement would seem to be true for lovers, doomed to run toward a goal that, they know, never arrives on time.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Ah, love: if it didnandrsquo;t end badly, it wouldnandrsquo;t end at all, especially for two star-crossed lovers in modern-day Puerto Rico. . . . A bleak but emotionally resonant work that finds weighty things to say about writing, culture, Puerto Rican identity, and the dangers of projecting oneandrsquo;s desire upon another. . . . This is a very eerie bit of fiction which is erotic without being romantic, psychically raw without collapsing into ennui, and linguistically expressive while using characters that live and breathe and cry right on the page. . . . The bookandrsquo;s human hearts ring true in the end. Like the song says, you canandrsquo;t always get what you want.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Available in Spanish for the first time in the United States.
From Rosario Ferré (nominated for the National Book Award for The House on the Lagoon), her first work of fiction, long out of print in any edition, in the original Spanish and including a previously unpublished story and two poems.
Papeles de Pandora contains the stories that first brought Rosario Ferré to the attention of Spanish-language readers throughout the world. In this collection, Ferré introduces her major theme: the position of women in a fast-changing but still patriarchal culture. In "La muñeca menor" ("The Youngest Doll"), a maiden aunt uses her skill at making honey-filled dolls to get revenge. "La bella durmiente" ("The Sleeping Beauty"), recounts the brief life of a young dancer through letters and newspaper clippings that reveal much more than they say. And in "Cuando las mujeres quieren a los hombres" ("When Women Love Men"), a society lady and a prostitute form a startling alliance after the death of the man they both loved. Richly imagined, elegantly written, Ferré's stories are early proof of her stature among contemporary Latin American writers.
Synopsis
A story of alienation, love, suspense, and imagination set on the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico, SIMONE describes a self-educated Chinese immigrant student stalking (and courting) a disillusioned writer. The novel begins with the writerandrsquo;s frustrated, satiric observations on his native city and the life of the university where he teaches. It progresses to the cat-and-mouse game he enters into with his mystery stalker; finally it describes his recognition of the plight of Chinese immigrant workers in Puerto Rico.and#160; Traumatized and lonely, the characters move towards bitter-sweet collaborations in passion, grief, literature and art. Longing to escape his isolation and his native city, the writer ends by embracing both.
About the Author
Eduardo Lalo is a writer, essayist, video artist, and photographer from Puerto Rico. He is the author of ten Spanish-language books, including La Inutilidad, Los Paandiacute;ses Invisibles, and, most recently, El Deseo del Landaacute;piz.