The Desert and Its Seed

The Desert and Its Seed
Jorge Baron Biza, Camilo Ramirez
RRP:
NZ$ 34.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 29.74
Paperback
h203 x 132mm - 448pg
22 May 2018 US
International import eta 7-19 days
9780811225809
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
The Desert and Its Seed opens with a taxi ride to the hospital: Eligia' s face is disintegrating from acid thrown by her ex-husband while they signed divorce papers. Mario, her son, tries to wipe the acid from Eligia' s face, but his own fingers burn. What follows is a fruitless attempt to reconstruct Eligia' s face-first in Buenos Aires, thereafter in Milan. Mario, the narrator, becomes the shadow and witness of the reconstruction attempts to repair his mother' s outraged flesh. In this role, he must confront his own terrible existence and identity, both of which are bound to an Argentina he sees disintegrating around him. Based on a true, tragic family story, Jorge Baron Biza' s The Desert and Its Seed was rejected by publishers in Buenos Aires and was finally self-published in 1998, three years before the author committed suicide. Written in a captivating plain style with dark, bitter humor, The Desert and Its Seed has become a modern classic, published to enormous acclaim throughout the Spanish-speaking world and translated into many languages.
"An Argentinian masterpiece. " -- La Stampa "A sublime explosion that results from an unpredictable art. " -- El Pais "A great novel. " -- Alejandro Zambra "Grips and perturbs the reader simultaneously. " -- Les Monde des Livres "A cult masterpiece. The author has been compared to Joyce and Proust. " -- Enrique Vila-Matas "An emotionally (and physically) harrowing account of isolation, violence, and hypocrisy. " -- Tobias Carroll - Words Without Borders "The Desert and Its Seed chronicles the aftermath of an attack identical to the one that Baron Biza' s father perpetrated against his mother. Baron Biza maintains [a] mixture of unflinching scrutiny and cool lyricism through the novel. It feels strikingly of the moment, as a resurgent feminist movement draws attention to the wide scope of misogyny. " -- Alejandro Chacoff - The New Yorker "Elegant prose. " -- Publisher Weekly "A provocative, meticulous novel that' s both utterly repulsive and morbidly fascinating. " -- Booklist "A marvel. " -- Will Noah - 4Columns
Jorge Baron Biza (1942-2001) was a journalist and professor, who also worked for various Argentinian publishing houses. His family' s tragic lives are documented in several books, including The Desert and Its Seed. Camilo Ramirez is a Colombian literary translator, editor, and media strategist based in New York City.
Status: No local stock, title imported to order
ISBN-13: 9780811225809
Published: 22 May 2018
Published In: United States
Imprint: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Format: Paperback
Height: 203mm
Width: 132mm
Spine: 18mm
Weight: 239g
Pages: 448

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