Life in the Damn Tropics

Life in the Damn Tropics PDF Author: David Unger
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299200541
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Set in strife-torn Guatemala City in the early 1980s, this sophisticated, quasi-comedic tale depicts the decline and near-fall of a prominent Guatemalan Jewish family. In the face of military rule, terrorism, and sabotage, Marcos learns the truth about his brother Aaron, only to find that sibling secrets can be every bit as dangerous as civil unrest.

Life in the Damn Tropics

Life in the Damn Tropics PDF Author: David Unger
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299200541
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book Here

Book Description
Set in strife-torn Guatemala City in the early 1980s, this sophisticated, quasi-comedic tale depicts the decline and near-fall of a prominent Guatemalan Jewish family. In the face of military rule, terrorism, and sabotage, Marcos learns the truth about his brother Aaron, only to find that sibling secrets can be every bit as dangerous as civil unrest.

The Price of Escape

The Price of Escape PDF Author: David Unger
Publisher: Akashic Books
ISBN: 1617750433
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
“A Jewish man flees 1938 Germany only to find a new and unexpected nightmare” in Guatemala, in this tale of dark humor and desperate suspense (Publishers Weekly). In 1938, as Samuel Berkow’s tramp steamer from Germany approaches Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, he is full of hope that he will be able to find a family member and begin to remake his life in the new world. But in this sweltering, chaotic, and hostile port town, he will have to face down many obstacles—including himself—before he can hope to truly escape . . . “Unger’s sharp prose deftly conveys Samuel’s frustrations and confusions as he encounters characters like a troublesome dwarf, a volatile American fruit company manager, a crazed ex-priest, and a friendly telegraph operator who all offer help with one hand but uncertainty with the other.” —Publishers Weekly “Evoking both Kafka and Conrad, Unger’s character study of a broken man in a culture broken by a ravenous corporation makes compelling reading.” —Booklist “Unger’s tale utterly seduces with its mix of the exotic and the familiar.” —Toronto Star

The Mastermind

The Mastermind PDF Author: David Unger
Publisher: Akashic Books
ISBN: 1617754552
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Set in Guatemala and based on a true story, “this intriguing literary thriller will appeal to lovers of international crime fiction” (Booklist). Guillermo Rosensweig is a member of the Guatemalan elite, runs a successful law practice, has a wife and kids—and a string of gorgeous lovers. Then one day he crosses paths with Maryam, a Lebanese beauty with whom he falls desperately in love . . . to the point that when he loses her, he sees no other option than to orchestrate his own death. The Mastermind is based on the bizarre real-life story of Rodrigo Rosenberg, a Guatemalan attorney who, in 2009, planned his own assassination after leaving behind a video accusing Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom of his murder. This is a fascinating depiction of modern-day Guatemala and the corrupt, criminal, and threatening reality that permeates its society. “Engaging . . . Raw and unforgettable.” —Publishers Weekly “This is a compelling story that can easily be read in a single sitting. And, as in any good mystery, when things go wrong, the novel becomes that much more interesting. Even for readers with no interest in Guatemala per se, this is one worth reading for the sheer joy of the writing itself.” —Reviewing the Evidence “A riveting account of one man’s high-stakes journey to self-reckoning.” —Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban

Jonah and Sarah

Jonah and Sarah PDF Author: David Shrayer-Petrov
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 0815607768
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
From the deceptively simple narrative (Apple Cider Vinegar, Hurricane Bob) to the surrealist story (Dismemberers) and the magical tale (Jonah and Sarah and Lanskoy Road), the tempo fluctuates, but throughout, Shrayer-Petrov seamlessly preserves familiar voices. The stories have a genuine feel of the setting and epoch—the Russian stories work as narratives of everyday life, while the American stories offer an accurate sense of an émigré’s alienation. Like all good works of fiction, these stories take on a mythic quality and transcend time and place. Each carries and communicates to the reader an aura of mystery, the enigma of love, and a meeting of the Jewish past and present. Whether he invokes lyrical dialogue, gentle irony, or sharp polemical discourse, Shrayer-Petrov shows that he is a powerful presence in Russian and Jewish literature. For those interested in fiction about new immigrants to America or in the psychology of Jews in the two decades before the Soviet Union’s collapse, this collection is a must read.

The Day My Mother Changed Her Name and Other Stories

The Day My Mother Changed Her Name and Other Stories PDF Author: William D. Kaufman
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 9780815609322
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
William Kaufman grew up on his mother’s kugel and his father’s boyhood stories. The son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and the Ukraine and one of five children, he learned how to translate his colorful childhood into tales of his own, regaling audiences of family, friends, and eventually his retirement community with periodic public readings. Now, at the age of 93, Kaufman makes his stories, filled with a sharp wit and telling detail, available to a wider audience for the first time. In the title story a young Jewish boy is shamed by his narrow-minded teacher when she forces him to admit, before the whole class, that his mother cannot read English. His mother’s eventual encounter with the teacher offers a lesson in self-respect with just the right balance of grace and moxie. In “The Search for God in the A & P” a young boy goes on a clandestine mission to compare prices at his father’s grocery competition; the expedition meets with comic results when the young boy refuses to be bullied in this David-and-Goliath-style parable. These semi-autobiographical stories, populated with outsized and magnetic characters, subtly layer the specifics of the Jewish experience with universals dilemmas of childhood, growing up, and old age.

Mr. President

Mr. President PDF Author: Miguel Ángel Asturias
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143136380
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
“[A] brilliant translation . . . Electrifying vividness animates every page.” ―Claire Messud, Harper’s Magazine “A formidable new English translation.” ―The New Yorker “[A] masterful translation.” ―The Washington Post Nobel Prize–winning Guatemalan author Miguel Ángel Asturias’s masterpiece—the original Latin American dictator novel and pioneering work of magical realism—in its first new English translation in more than half a century, featuring a foreword by Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa Also available from Penguin Classics: Miguel Ángel Asturias’s visionary epic of ecological devastation, capitalist exploitation, and Indigenous wisdom, Men of Maize In an unnamed country, an egomaniacal dictator schemes to dispose of a political adversary and maintain his grip on power. As tyranny takes hold, everyone is forced to choose between compromise and death. Inspired by life under the regime of President Manuel Estrada Cabrera of Guatemala, where it was banned for many years, and infused with exuberant lyricism, Mayan symbolism, and Guatemalan vernacular, Nobel Prize winner Miguel Ángel Asturias’s magnum opus is at once a surrealist masterpiece, a blade-sharp satire of totalitarianism, and a gripping portrait of psychological terror. For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

A Pan-American Life

A Pan-American Life PDF Author: Muna Lee
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299202347
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
The extraordinary Muna Lee was a brilliant writer, lyric poet, translator, diplomat, feminist and rights activist, and, above all, a Pan-Americanist. During the twentieth century, she helped shape the literary and social landscapes of the Americas. This is the first biography of her remarkable life and a collection of her diverse writings, which embody her vision of Pan America, an old concept that remains new and meaningful today.

Sleeping with the Light On

Sleeping with the Light On PDF Author: David Unger
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
ISBN: 1773063855
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 61

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Book Description
Life in Guatemala is simple for young Davico and his older brother Felipe ... until soldiers invade, and the blackouts begin. Davico lives with his family above La Casita — the Little House — in Guatemala City in the early 1950s. But it’s not just a little house. It’s also the family restaurant! The restaurant provides plenty of distraction and adventure for Davico and his older brother, Felipe. The mean cook, Augusto, and the always-late waiter, Otto, love to play tricks on Davico. There’s a huge oven that Felipe knows how to light — if he can only reach the box of matches above the stove. And don’t forget the glass tank of live lobsters — including the king of them all, Genghis Khan, who stares at Davico with round unblinking eyes. Could Genghis Khan climb on the back of the other lobsters and get out of the tank, Davico wonders. Could he move faster on land than in the water? Then one day, Davico hears shooting in the streets. There are blackouts every evening, and the family must sleep under the big wooden table in the dining room. People stop coming to the restaurant, and tanks and soldiers swarm the front of the National Palace, where a shoeshine boy warns the brothers that the gringos are coming. But what does that mean, and who are the gringos? Davico wants to be brave, but the shooting and tanks and airplanes flying overhead terrify him. He finds comfort in the special lamp that his father buys him to endure the blackouts. But it is not enough to console Davico when his parents announce that it’s time to leave for the United States of America, where no one speaks Spanish, and everything is different. Key Text Features Illustrations Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7 Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting)

The Day My Mother Cried and Other Stories

The Day My Mother Cried and Other Stories PDF Author: William D. Kaufman
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 0815651252
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
The lasting charm of Kaufman’s stories lies in a delightful mix of personal incidents and observations set against an anchoring backdrop of cultural tradition. His new collection is filled with tales from his parents’ homeland in the Ukraine, his own childhood reminiscences, and his adult travels. We watch the young author forced alongside “every Jewish boy on the block” to emulate Yehudi Menuhin on a ten-dollar violin with a moldy bow until the boy is spared by an innate lack of talent and his father’s judgment of his concert: “Enough is enough is more than enough.” Kaufman is carefully attuned to the awkwardness of adulthood as well as to that of early adolescence. In “Interlude in Bangkok,” his narrator scours the city for a synagogue while pursued by a prostitute. Later he and a friend encounter Greta Garbo in a museum café and are too frightened to approach her. Aware of their intrigue, the mysterious movie star intones, “I am not she”; Kaufman, in his own way, says that of himself in these stories through an autobiographical narrator whose memories take on resonant, literary shapes in their retelling.

The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories

The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories PDF Author: Horacio Quiroga
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299198343
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
From the Publisher: Tales of horror, madness, and death, tales of fantasy and morality: these are the works of South American storyteller Horacio Quiroga. The first representative collection of his work in English, The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories provides a valuable overview of the scope of Quiroga's fiction and the versatility and skill that have made him a classic Latin American writer.