Críticas Magazine

Adriana V. Lopez

What's new this August?
August 20, 2008

Here are four novels out this month written and translated into English by some well-known Hispanic authors. First off, Brazil’s Frances de Pontes Peebles, a graduate of Iowa Writers' Workshop, is a promising newcomer in Latino letters, while Spain’s Antonio Muñoz Molina’s (also based in New York) long awaited translation of his Spanish-language classic, Beatus Ille, with a translation by Edith Grossman got a positive review in The New York Sun. If noir and adventure are your thing, Portugal’s Luís Miguel Rocha promises to thrill with a papal conspiracy story and Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s delivers a golden fourth in his Alatriste series.

The Seamstress
By Frances de Pontes Peebles.
Harper

This lavishly detailed if overlong debut novel set in 1920s and '30s Brazil follows two sisters who share excellent sewing skills, but take divergent paths into adulthood. Crippled by a childhood accident and mocked for her deformities, Luzia is considered unmarriageable. So after a bandit kidnaps her, she realizes that marrying the outlaw leader may be her only chance at independence and happiness. Beautiful Emília, yearning for the refinements of the big city, spurns her many rural suitors, but—reeling from her sister's abduction and her aunt's subsequent death—enters a disastrous marriage with a wealthy, suave stranger who has plenty of untoward secrets and a mother who treats Emília like dirt. The sisters' paths collide after Luzia, now mythologized as a vicious criminal known as the Seamstress, becomes targeted by Emília's criminologist father-in-law, unaware of the two women's connection. Though a good number of passages could have been left on the cutting-room floor, the leisurely pace and attention to detail immerse the reader in both gilded halls and unsavory bandit camps. (As reviewed in Publishers Weekly)

The Last Pope
By Luís Miguel Rocha.
Penguin.

1978, Vatican City: On September 29, the world awakens to news of the shocking, sudden death of Pope John Paul I, elected only thirty-three days earlier. The Vatican’s official response: His Holiness died of unknown causes, “possibly associated with a heart attack.” The pope’s body is embalmed within twenty-four hours, preventing any possibility of an autopsy. What really happened during the brief reign of John Paul I? Whose plans were cut short that fatal night in September 1978? And who really benefited from the pope’s sudden demise?

A Manuscript of Ashes (Beatus Ille).
By Antonio Muñoz Molina.
 Harcourt
Translation by Edith Grossman

Seeking refuge from the police during the last days of Franco’s rule, Minaya moves into his uncle’s country estate. There he stumbles upon dark secrets involving an old poet, his uncle, and the death of the woman they both had loved.

 
The King’s Gold
By Arturo Pérez-Reverte.
Putnam

This story picks up in Seville, 1626. After serving with honor at the bloody siege of Breda, Captain Alatriste and his protege, Inigo Balboa, have returned: battle-weary, short of cash, and with few prospects for honest work. But the Spanish empire is as dangerous as ever, and it’s not long before Alatriste receives an intriguing offer of short-term employment. This is the fourth in this series.

Posted by Adriana V. Lopez on August 20, 2008 | Comments (0)