Labyrinth
Mexico City / 07.21.2023 23:30:00
Terror in New Spain; an independent woman in Tokyo and the difficulties that this implies; an author who renewed horror in the eighties; stories of Stanislaw Lem, master of science fiction; the story of one of the first Jews to escape from the horrifying Auschwitz concentration camp; the intimate life of Voltaire… knows the books he recommends Labyrinth this week.
The Viceroy’s Vampire
Vampires terrorizing the provinces of New Spain at the end of the 18th century? Neither more nor less, although they do not have the intervention of Sor Filotea (protected by the Grand Inquisitor), who leaves the capital of the viceroyalty to combat the evil that is spreading rapidly. The landing of a Transylvanian prince further complicates the plot. Everything is at the command of the imagination, but Zagal manages to paint a plausible picture of that time, above all because of his knowledge of convent life and traditional Mexican cuisine.
Hector Zagal | Martinez Rock | Mexico | 2023 | 510 pages enlarge
story of a single woman
Published in 1992, this novel moves between fiction and autobiography. Her protagonist, Kazúe, does not hesitate to break with social conventions to embark on a love affair that forces her to run away from home and rebuild her life in a Tokyo where it is unthinkable for a woman to declare herself independent and deny marriage. Chiyo Uno is not only the incarnation of the writer who knew how to stand up to her time, but also a fundamental figure of a generation of artists who imposed bohemia in Japan before World War II.
Chiyo One | light | Mexico | 2023 | 160 pages enlarge
Cabal
We owe Barker the renewal of the horror genre in the 1980s. Proof of this is this novel, published in 1988 and set in the cold rooms of a psychiatric hospital and a city inhabited by the sinister race of the night. At the rhythm of crazy adventures, the plot follows the footsteps of a young man who has attempted suicide and seeks refuge in an alternate reality, and his girlfriend, as unconditional as she is brave, who sets herself the task of rescuing him by crossing the boundaries between life and death.
Clive Barker | Valdemar | Spain | 2023 | 272 pages enlarge
robot fables
The creative universe of the Polish science fiction writer is condensed above all in his novels, but his stories are just as remarkable. This volume is considered mythical by the publishers because, as has been observed, it gave rise to later titles such as cyberiad. Of course, the robots are present, but the human dimension does not disappear, as in “Legend of King Murdano”, a story in which the protagonist ends up being the victim of his dreams.
Stanisław Lem | Impediments | Spain | 2022 | 200 pages broad
the escape master
A book recommended by the likes of Yuval Noah Harari and Simon Schama, it presents the story of Rudolf Vrba, one of the first Jews to escape from the horrifying Auschwitz concentration camp. Vrba’s real name was Walter Rosenberg and once he was safe he created another personality for himself. His surprising flight, according to Schama, was “not only towards freedom, but towards the truth”. His story helped raise awareness of Nazi atrocities.
Jonathan Freedland | Planet | Mexico | 2023 | 544 pages expand
Voltaire. A life
It is not a critical biography, since the work remains in the background, but rather the life of one of the emblematic figures of the Enlightenment. So the family environment, friends and lovers, the court, money problems, diplomatic missions, exile, decline prevail. As the author explains in the introductory note, it was not an easy task to make your way through the enormous amount of gossip and falsehoods that accompanied Voltaire’s passage through his century.
Ian Davidson | Ariel | Mexico | 2023 | 639 pages enlarge Read more:
AQ
2023-07-22 07:03:30
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