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The Twilight Zone
* Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature *
An engrossing, incantatory novel about the legacy of historical crimes by the author of Space Invaders It is 1984 in Chile, in the middle of the Pinochet dictatorship. A member of the secret police walks into the office of a dissident magazine and finds a reporter, who records his testimony. The narrator of Nona Fernández's mesmerizing and terrifying novel The Twilight Zone is a child when she first sees this man's face on the magazine's cover with the words "I Tortured People." His complicity in the worst crimes of the regime and his commitment to speaking about them haunt the narrator into her adulthood and career as a writer and documentarian. Like a secret service agent from the future, through extraordinary feats of the imagination, Fernández follows the "man who tortured people" to places that archives can't reach, into the sinister twilight zone of history where morning routines, a game of chess, Yuri Gagarin, and the eponymous TV show of the novel's title coexist with the brutal yet commonplace machinations of the regime. How do crimes vanish in plain sight? How does one resist a repressive regime? And who gets to shape the truths we live by and take for granted? The Twilight Zone pulls us into the dark portals of the past, reminding us that the work of the writer in the face of historical erasure is to imagine so deeply that these absences can be, for a time, spectacularly illuminated. -
Desierto Sonoro / Lost Children Archive: A Novel
NOVELA GANADORA DEL PREMIO LITERARIO DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2021. Un matrimonio en crisis viaja en coche con sus dos hijos pequeños desde Nueva York hasta Arizona. Ambos son documentalistas y cada uno se concentra en un proyecto propio: él está tras los rastros de la última banda apache en rendirse al poder militar estadounidense; ella busca documentar la diáspora de niños que llegan a la frontera sur del país en busca de asilo. Mientras el coche familiar atraviesa el vasto territorio norteamericano, los dos niños, sentados en el asiento trasero, escuchan las conversaciones e historias de sus padres y a su manera confunden las noticias de la crisis migratoria con el genocidio de los pueblos originarios de Norteamérica. En su imaginación, estas historias se entremezclan, dando lugar a una aventura que es la historia de una familia, un país y un continente. Desierto sonoro, tercera novela de Valeria Luiselli, combina lo mejor de dos grandes tradiciones literarias, la del viaje y la del éxodo: trasiega por el asfalto y atraviesa horizontes desérticos, se detiene en moteles de carretera y penetra en los territorios íntimos de sus personajes, ofreciendo con precisión una serie de instantáneas que retratan las infinitas capas del paisaje geográfico, sonoro, político y espiritual que conforman la realidad contemporánea. Un relato conmovedor y necesario que muestra la fragilidad con que se definen los lazos familiares, indaga en la manera en que documentamos nuestras existencias y pasamos las historias de generación en generación, y se pregunta qué significa ser humano en un mundo cada vez más deshumanizado. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION WINNER OF THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2021. ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: THE WASHINGTON POST- TIME MAGAZINE - NPR - CHICAGO TRIBUNE - GQ - O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE - THE GUARDIAN - VANITY FAIR - THE ATLANTIC - THE WEEK - THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS - LIT HUB - KIRKUS REVIEWS - THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY - BOSTON.COM - PUREWOW "An epic road trip [that also] captures the unruly intimacies of marriage and parenthood. . . . This is a novel that daylights our common humanity, and challenges us to reconcile our differences." --The Washington Post In Valeria Luiselli's fiercely imaginative follow-up to the American Book Award-winning Tell Me How It Ends, an artist couple set out with their two children on a road trip from New York to Arizona in the heat of summer. As the family travels west, the bonds between them begin to fray: a fracture is growing between the parents, one the children can almost feel beneath their feet. Through ephemera such as songs, maps and a Polaroid camera, the children try to make sense of both their family's crisis and the larger one engulfing the news: the stories of thousands of kids trying to cross the southwestern border into the United States but getting detained--or lost in the desert along the way. A breath-taking feat of literary virtuosity, Lost Children Archive is timely, compassionate, subtly hilarious, and formally inventive--a powerful, urgent story about what it is to be human in an inhuman world.Sold out -
The Bluest Sky
A boy and his family must decide whether to remain in Cuba under a repressive government or risk everything for the chance of a new beginning in this gripping story from the award-winning author of The Red Umbrella. There are two versions of Héctor: the public and the private. It's the only way to survive in communist Cuba--especially when your father was exiled to the U.S. and labeled an enemy of the people. Héctor must always be seen as a fierce supporter of the regime, even if that means loudly rejecting the father he still loves. But in the summer of 1980, those two versions are hard to keep separate. No longer able to suppress a public uprising, the Cuban government says it will open the port of Mariel to all who wish to leave the country--if they can find a boat. But choosing to leave comes with a price. Those who want to flee are denounced as traitors by family and friends. There are violent acts of repudiation, and no one knows if they will truly be allowed to leave the country or not. So when Héctor's mother announces that she wants the family to risk everything to go to the United States, he is torn. He misses his father, but Cuba is the only home he has ever known. All his dreams and plans require him to stay. Can he leave everything behind for an unknown future? In a summer of heat and upheaval, danger and deadly consequences, Héctor's two worlds are on a collision course. Will the impact destroy him and everything he loves? Christina Diaz Gonzalez's great-grandmother, great-uncle, and extended family came to the U.S. through the Mariel boatlift. She vividly remembers meeting them all for the first time in the summer of 1980 and is proud to share this part of her family's history. -
Merci Suárez Se Pone Las Pilas
La amable y tenaz Merci Suárez, estudiante de sexto grado, lidia con cambios difíciles en sus relaciones con amistades, familiares y el resto del mundo en una nueva y relevante novela de Meg Medina. Merci Suárez sabía que el sexto grado sería diferente, pero no tenía idea alguna lo diferente que resultaría. En primer lugar, Merci nunca se ha parecido a los otros niños de su escuela privada en la Florida, porque tanto ella como Roli, su hermano mayor, son estudiantes becados. Ellos no tienen ni una casa grande ni un yate elegante, y tienen que desempeñar servicios comunitarios adicionales para compensar por su matricula gratis. Así que cuando la mandona de Edna Santos se fija en el nuevo niño que la escuela le ha asignado a Merci como su "amigos de arco iris," Merci se convierte en el foco de los celos de Edna. Las cosas no andan muy bien en su casa tampoco: Lolo, el abuelo de Merci, su aliado de mayor confianza, ha estado actuando un poco raro últimamente: se le olvida cosas importantes, se cae de la bicicleta y se enoja por cualquier cosa. Nadie en la familia le ha dicho a Merci qué es lo que le aflige, así que Merci tiene que lidiar sola con sus preocupaciones, a la vez que se siente aislada en la escuela. En una historia sobre los ritos de la pre-adolescencia, llena de humor y sabiduría, la galardonada autora Meg Medina llega al fondo del desconcierto y del cambio continuo que caracterizan el último año de la escuela elemental, así como de los lazos inquebrantables de la familia. -
Me Llamo Maria Isabel (My Name Is Maria Isabel)
Para María Isabel Salazar López lo más difícil de ser la alumna recién llegada a una nueva escuela es que la maestra no la llama por su nombre. --Ya tenemos dos Marías en esta clase--le dice la maestra. -- Por qué no te llamamos Mary? Pero a María Isabel la llamaron así en recuerdo de la madre de su padre y de Chabela, su querida abuelita puertorriqueña. Podrá hacerle comprender a la maestra que perder su nombre es perder la parte más importante de sí misma? -
The Chupacabras of the Río Grande
Pura Belpré Honor-winning author David Bowles joins Newbery Honor-winning Adam Gidwitz as co-author of the newest Unicorn Rescue Society adventure, as the kids travel to the U.S.-Mexican border to help the legendary chupacabras. INCLUDES AN EXCLUSIVE BONUS STORY about the medieval Secret Order of the Unicorn! A new adventure begins for Elliot and Uchenna when Professor Fauna bursts into their classroom with
a frightening report from the Texas-Mexico border: something has completely drained the blood from
a cow's body! The team must fly to Laredo, where tempers are running high. Teaming up with local kids Lupita and Mateo--plus their brilliant mother, Dr. Alejandra Cervantes, and her curandero husband, Israel--can the Unicorn Rescue Society save the region's animals and help bring a divided community together once more? And what is that spiny, bloodsucking, adorable little creature? -
We Still Be: Poems and Performances
The long-awaited full-length debut of poems by the nationally-celebrated, award-winning spoken word artist, playwright, and educator Paul S. Flores.
"Paul S. Flores unlocks the hot key, the people's voice, and the Spanglish ritmoRhythm on how to write our story. He swags us into the soul and soulfulness of our life-chapters and our plight in the USA. It is a personal mambo, a face-to-face truth riffin' us into a "Spanglish mandala of hope," at last. We never again will ask ourselves "Who am I?" "Who are we?" Flores is not afraid to speak of his wounds of familia-yes, he is intimate, he is loving. He escorts us through the Bay Area, land of poets, artists, musicians, and muralists-he is part of that, he is all that-and we will be as we enter this world. Don't forget: Huey Newton, Lolita Lebrón, and José Feliciano in this salsa history bowl that will light you up all the way to feverish happiness. Flores is a master weaver, with a blazing kaleidoscopic lamp that reveals and embodies our lives. No book like this one in the last 50 years."
--Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the United States, Emeritus, winner of the Ruth Lily Prize, 2022, and Robert Frost Lifetime Achievement Medal, 2023
"Poetry evangelist" Paul S. Flores testifies to the importance of language, representation and equity, the hypocrisy of sham systems, and his personal journey to redefine masculinity with a responsibility to the younger generations. Flores stakes his claim in Bay Area poetics writing with true intimacy, vulnerability, and radical love for his community. WE STILL BE is part memoir, part call to action, and part cultural celebration. It is a declaration of hope that we will all win, that men can be trusted, and that San Francisco's poetic heartbeat is still something worth believing in. --Amalia Ortiz, HBO Def Poet and American Book Award Winner. Author of Rant. Chant. Chisme. and The Canción Cannibal Cabaret & Other Songs -
Sold outLast Evenings on Earth
"The melancholy folklore of exile," as Roberto Bolano once put it, pervades these fourteen haunting stories. Bolano's narrators are usually writers grappling with private (and generally unlucky) quests, who typically speak in the first person, as if giving a deposition, like witnesses to a crime. These protagonists tend to take detours and to narrate unresolved efforts. They are characters living in the margins, often coming to pieces, and sometimes, as in a nightmare, in constant flight from something horrid.
In the short story "Silva the Eye," Bolano writes in the opening sentence: "It's strange how things happen, Mauricio Silva, known as The Eye, always tried to escape violence, even at the risk of being considered a coward, but the violence, the real violence, can't be escaped, at least not by us, born in Latin America in the 1950s, those of us who were around 20 years old when Salvador Allende died."
Set in the Chilean exile diaspora of Latin America and Europe, and peopled by Bolano's beloved "failed generation," the stories of Last Evenings on Earth have appeared in The New Yorker and Grand Street.Sold out -
Sold outThrough the Rain
The long-awaited finale of the Hidalgo brothers trilogy is here! The third story in the internationally bestselling series that catapulted Ariana Godoy to stardom and inspired a series of Netflix films.
After watching both his brothers get on with their lives, Apolo Hidalgo is excited to embark on his next stage: college. He's determined to live out his dream, studying psychology and helping others. But his plans are shattered when he's attacked and beaten in an alley one rainy night. But in the end, that's how he meets her: Rain. The girl with the umbrella saves him, and even though he doesn't know who she is, he can't forget her. When he finally finds her again, Apolo is even more smitten. Through her, he meets Xan, the owner of a cafe, and soon the three are together all the time. But as they grow closer as a group, it becomes clear that Rain and Xan are hiding much more than Apolo could have imagined. Apolo is full of good intentions, but that's no guarantee of anything . . . especially in love.Sold out -
Sold outThe Border Simulator: Poems
A world-bending, lyrically rich poetry collection that reimagines the U.S.-Mexico border as both a real place and a living simulation--and tells the story of a pair of siblings trapped between the two "Word coyote Gabriel Dozal is crossing borders with this story. It's his job: narrative poetry discovering a new language."--Sandra Cisneros, author of Woman Without Shame "This crosser is a possession that someone wants but we're not sure who
and the crosser must often possess themselves. In perpetuity" In Gabriel Dozal's debut collection, the U.S.-Mexico border is redefined as a place of invention; crossing it becomes a matter of simulation. The poems accompany Primitivo, who attempts to cross the border, an imaginary boundary that becomes more real and challenging as his journey progresses; and his sister, Primitiva, who lives an alternate, static life as an exploited migrant worker in la fabrica. The tech world and bureaucracy collide, with humanity falling by the wayside, as Primitiva endures drudgery in la fabrica. "In the past our ID cards were decorative. Now we switch off with someone else, another worker who will wipe the serenade from our eyes." With no way to escape the simulation, Primitivo and Primitiva must participate in it, scheming to gain its favor. To win, you must be the best performer in the factory, the best imitation of a citizen, the best machine. Featuring a bilingual format for English and Spanish readers, The Border Simulator explores physical and metaphysical borders, as well as the digital divide of our modern era. With inventive imagery, spirited wordplay, and thrilling movement, these energetic poems oscillate between the harrowing and the joyful, interrogating, innovating, and ultimately redefining binaries and divisions.Sold out -
The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano
One of America's most influential Hispanics -- 'Maria' on Sesame Street -- presents a powerful novel set in New York's El Barrio in 1969.There are two secrets Evelyn Serrano is keeping from her Mami and Papo? her true feelings about growing up in her Spanish Harlem neighborhood, and her attitude about Abuela, her sassy grandmother who's come from Puerto Rico to live with them. Then, like an urgent ticking clock, events erupt that change everything. The Young Lords, a Puerto Rican activist group, dump garbage in the street and set it on fire, igniting a powerful protest. When Abuela steps in to take charge, Evelyn is thrust into the action. Tempers flare, loyalties are tested. Through it all, Evelyn learns important truths about her Latino heritage and the history makers who shaped a nation. Infused with actual news accounts from the time period, Sonia Manzano has crafted a gripping work of fiction based on her own life growing up during a fiery, unforgettable time in America, when young Latinos took control of their destinies. -
Poems of the Night: A Dual-Language Edition with Parallel Text
A dual-language volume of poems on darkness and light--many appearing in English for the first time--by one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century
Revered for his magnificent works of fiction, Jorge Luis Borges thought of himself primarily as a poet. Poems of the Night is a moving collection of the great literary visionary's poetic meditations on nighttime, darkness, and the crepuscular world of visions and dreams, themes that speak implicitly to the blindness that overtook Borges late in life--and yet the poems here are drawn from the full span of Borges's career. Featuring such poems as "History of the Night" and "In Praise of Darkness" and more than fifty others in luminous translations by an array of distinguished translators--among them W. S. Merwin, Christopher Maurer, Alan Trueblood, and Alastair Reid--this volume brings to light many poems that have never appeared in English, presenting them en face with their Spanish originals. -
Chicano Frankenstein
A modern retelling of the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley classic that addresses issues of belonging and assimilationAn unnamed paralegal, brought back to life through a controversial process, maneuvers through a near-future world that both needs and resents him. As the United States president spouts anti-reanimation rhetoric and giant pharmaceutical companies rake in profits, the man falls in love with lawyer Faustina Godínez. His world expands as he meets her network of family and friends, setting him on a course to discover his first-life history, which the reanimation process erased. With elements of science fiction, horror, political satire and romance, Chicano Frankenstein confronts our nation's bigotries and the question of what it truly means to be human.
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The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel: Literature of the Yucatan Mayans; the Religion, Calendar and Legends of the Maya Civilization
The Book of Chilam Balam contains the myths, legends and folklore of the Mayan civilization, as well as abundant insights into the religious ceremonies and cultural heritage of the Maya.
Centuries of lore, written as hieroglyphics upon stone, allowed archaeologists and historians to reconstruct the various beliefs and customs that underpinned Mayan life. The Yucatan peninsula was the crucible of this complex and intricate mythos; it is comprised of prophecies for the Mayan priesthood, spiritual tenets to be observed by worshippers, historical accounts and even medical knowledge. Chilam is the name of the greatest prophet; his words were considered to be directly from the Gods, and were accorded the highest importance in the intensely pious society of the Mayans.
Alongside the translated lore are copies of Mayan drawings and examples of symbols and iconography. The introduction offers a history of the scholarship; how the early European explorers managed to find and translate Mayan writings, and how their efforts were gradually refined by archaeological excavations and discoveries. The famous calendar of the Mayans is also detailed in charts, as is the astronomy which guided the Maya's interpretation of natural phenomena such as eclipses.
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Saraí Y El Significado de Lo Genial (Sarai and the Meaning of Awesome)
The first book in a brand-new illustrated chapter book series inspired by the life of 11-year-old viral video star and social activist Sarai Gonzalez.The Spanish edition of Sarai and the Meaning of Awesome!Fourth grader Sarai Gonzalez can do anything. She can bake, dance, and run her own cupcake business. But when Sarai's grandparents are forced to move, even Sarai's not sure what to do. So she hatches a super-awesome plan with her younger sisters and cousin to buy back the house. Will Sarai find a way to save the day? Inspired by the life of viral video sensation and social activist Sarai Gonzalez with the help of award-winning children's book author Monica Brown.Saraí es EXTRAORDINARIA. Esta chica de cuarto grado puede hornear, bailar y administrar su propio negocio. Pero cuando a sus abuelos los obligan a mudarse de casa, no sabe qué hacer. Encontrará una manera de resolver el problema? Un libro inspirado en el famoso video de la activista social Saraí González. Escrito por Saraí González y Monica Brown. -
Malinche Spanish Version: Novela
Cuando Malinalli conoce a Hernán Cortés, asume que se trata del propio Dios Quetzalcóatl que regresa a liberar a su pueblo. Los dos se enamoran apasionadamente, pero este amor pronto es destruido por la desmedida sed de conquista, poder y riqueza de Cortés. A lo largo de la historia de México Malinalli/Malinche ha sido conocida por su traición al pueblo indio. Pero recientes investigaciones históricas han demostrado que Malinalli fue la mediadora entre dos culturas, la hispánica y la indígena; y entre dos lenguas, el español y el náhuatl. Lo que Esquivel ha hecho en esta novela es desafiar la mitología tradicional mediante un retrato muy temperamental del Adán y la Eva de la cultura mestiza, Cortés y Malinalli, con la caída del imperio azteca como telón de fondo. Contada con el lirismo de la tradición cantarina y pictórica del náhuatl, Laura Esquivel nos brinda un mito fundacional de la cultura híbrida del Nuevo Mundo y una extraordinaria historia de amor.