Category Spanish
“Free falling through the subconscious”: Pablo Neruda’s “venture of the infinite man,” translated from Spanish by Jessica Powell
Reviewed by Arielle Avraham Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) remains one of the best-known South American poets of the 20th century, with copies of his most famous books selling in the millions, and two biographies published about him. His life is the stuff of legend. Born in a rural town in Chile, he began writing poetry as […]
A Scrapbook of “Memorial Clippings”: “My Lai” by Carmen Berenguer, translated from Spanish by Liz Henry
Reviewed by Kelsi Vanada It feels as though the pages of Chilean poet Carmen Berenguer’s My Lai, translated into English by Liz Henry, originated in a scrapbook or journal kept over many years—picked up, loose pages shaken out, and gathered up again quickly and out of order. This sensation is augmented by the inclusion of […]
Figures from the Mountains: “Baroni: A Journey” by Sergio Chejfec, translated from Spanish by Margaret Carson
Reviewed by Peter Hegarty Baroni: A Journey (2017) concerns Venezuela, where Argentinian writer Sergio Chejfec lived from 1990 to 2005 and where he published Nueva Sociedad, a journal of politics, culture and the social sciences. Gathered in the book, published after he left Venezuela, are his memories of the country, the people and landscapes he […]
THE LIFE OF HIS OTHER: Ricardo Piglia’s THE DIARIES OF EMILIO RENZI. FORMATIVE YEARS, TRANSLATED BY ROBERT CROLL
Reviewed by Peter Hegarty Argentinian writer Ricardo Emilio Piglia Renzi (1940 – 2017) had two literary identities. Ricardo Piglia wrote operas, screenplays, stories and detective fiction. In the English-speaking world he is probably best-known for Money to Burn (1997), a non-fiction novel inspired, if that is the word, by the violent robbery of a security […]
Cruel Imaginations: The Stories of Mariana Enriquez and Silvina Ocampo
Reviewed by Rebecca DeWald At the Edinburgh International Book Festival last summer, I heard Mariana Enriquez read from her short story collection Things We Lost in the Fire, the first English translation of her work, by Megan McDowell. Twice, in fact: At the official reading, and at a more informal evening event with readings and […]
Transparent Hours: Eunice Odio’s Territory of Dawn. Selected Poems, Translated by Keith Ekiss, Sonia P. Ticas, and Mauricio Espinoza
Reviewed by Jessica Sequeira It seems a terrible irony: a poet who primarily dedicated her work to a Beloved, one whose verses seem written with joy and melancholy rather than malice, is born with a surname that means hate. But no, already it’s a mistake to start from signification. Let’s think into this a different […]
Sugar castles: I Remember Nightfall by Marosa di Giorgio, translated by Jeannine Marie Pitas
Reviewed by Jessica Sequeira The poems of Uruguayan writer Marosa di Giorgio (1932 – 2004) are luscious, dark and gorgeous — but they also leave the reader with a sickly taste, an effect similar to that following the rapid consumption of a bag of sticky sweets, gulped down one after another while in thrall to […]
Scattered Ashes: August by Romina Paula, translated by Jennifer Croft
Reviewed by Peter Hegarty In southern Argentina, where Paula sets most of the novel, August is bright and cold, and colder still in Esquel, the Andean mountain town to which the protagonist, Emilia, returns for the scattering of the ashes of her best friend, Andrea. The novel takes the form of an extended letter to […]
Hothouse Flower: Olvido García Valdés’s And We Were All Alive, translated by Catherine Hammond
Reviewed by Jessica Sequeira “There were those who compared her to Santa Teresa, others who said she was too serious, even sullen, and people who swore her pride was chilling to those who met her,” wrote Roberto Bolaño of Olvido García Valdés. When he read her work, however, it “dazzled [him] the way that only […]
“island under our skin”: tasks by Víctor Rodríguez Núñez, translated by Katherine M. Hedeen
Reviewed by Kelsi Vanada I often find myself explaining my desire to translate by expressing that it is an inherently collaborative project, one in which my voice gets to support another’s. tasks, which was longlisted for the 2017 Best Translated Book Award, is the most recent, luminous product of years of collaboration between poet Víctor […]
