Happy Families

Аннотация

The internationally acclaimed author Carlos Fuentes, winner of the Cervantes Prize and the Latin Civilization Award, delivers a stunning work of fiction about family and love across an expanse of Mexican life, reminding us why he has been called a combination of Poe, Baudelaire, and Isak Dinesen (Newsweek). In these masterly vignettes, Fuentes explores Tolstoys classic observation that happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. In A Family Like Any Other, each member of the Pagan family lives in isolation, despite sharing a tiny house. In The Mariachis Mother, the limitless devotion of a woman is revealed as she secretly tends to her estranged sons wounds. Sweethearts reunites old lovers unexpectedly and opens up the possibilities for other lives and other loves. These are just a few of the remarkable stories in Happy Families, but they all inhabit Fuentess trademark Mexico, where modern obsessions bump up against those of the mythic past, and the result is a triumphant display of the many ways we reach out to one another and find salvation through irrepressible acts of love.In this spectacular translation, the acclaimed Edith Grossman captures the full weight of Fuentess range. Whether writing in the language of the street or in straightforward, elegant prose, Fuentes gives us stories connected by love, including the failure of lovebetween spouses, lovers, parents and children, siblings. From the Mexican presidential palace to the novels of the poor and the vast expanse of humanity in between, Happy Families is a magnificent portrait of modern life in all its complicated beauty, as told by one of the worlds most celebrated writers.Praise for Carlos FuentesWinner of the Cervantes PrizeThe Old GringoA dazzling novel that possesses the weight and resonance of myth [and] the fierce magic of a remembered dream.The New York TimesThe Death of Artemio CruzRemarkable in the scope of the human drama it pictures, the corrosive satire and sharp dialogue.The New York Times Book Review The Years with Laura DazReading this magnificent novel is like standing beneath the dome of the Sistine Chapel. . . . The breadth and enormity of this accomplishment is breathtaking.The Denver PostThis I BelieveEngaging, offering surprising conclusions, provocations or turns of phrase . . . Put down the page-turner and dare to drink these full-bodied, red, shining words.Los Angeles Times Book ReviewThe Eagles ThroneDazzling, razor-sharp . . . prescient . . . a feast of political insight.The Washington Post Book WorldFrom the Hardcover edition.