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Happy Families - Carlos Fuentes & Edith Grossman

By Carlos Fuentes & Edith Grossman

Release Date: 2008-09-23

Genre: Literary Fiction

4.5 (5 ratings)
Read Download
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 Tolstoy’s 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 Mariachi’s Mother,” the limitless devotion of a woman is revealed as she secretly tends to her estranged son’s 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 Fuentes’s 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 Fuentes’s 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 love–between 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 world’s most celebrated writers.

Praise for Carlos Fuentes
Winner of the Cervantes Prize

The Old Gringo

“A dazzling novel that possesses the weight and resonance of myth [and] the fierce magic of a remembered dream.”
–The New York Times

The Death of Artemio Cruz

“Remarkable 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 DĂ­az

“Reading this magnificent novel is like standing beneath the dome of the Sistine Chapel. . . . The breadth and enormity of this accomplishment is breathtaking.”
–The Denver Post

This I Believe

“Engaging, 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 Review

The Eagle’s Throne

“Dazzling, razor-sharp . . . prescient . . . a feast of political insight.”
–The Washington Post Book World

Happy Families - Carlos Fuentes & Edith Grossman

By Carlos Fuentes & Edith Grossman

Release Date: 2008-09-23

Genre: Literary Fiction

4.5 (5 ratings)
Read Download
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 Tolstoy’s 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 Mariachi’s Mother,” the limitless devotion of a woman is revealed as she secretly tends to her estranged son’s 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 Fuentes’s 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 Fuentes’s 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 love–between 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 world’s most celebrated writers.

Praise for Carlos Fuentes
Winner of the Cervantes Prize

The Old Gringo

“A dazzling novel that possesses the weight and resonance of myth [and] the fierce magic of a remembered dream.”
–The New York Times

The Death of Artemio Cruz

“Remarkable 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 DĂ­az

“Reading this magnificent novel is like standing beneath the dome of the Sistine Chapel. . . . The breadth and enormity of this accomplishment is breathtaking.”
–The Denver Post

This I Believe

“Engaging, 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 Review

The Eagle’s Throne

“Dazzling, razor-sharp . . . prescient . . . a feast of political insight.”
–The Washington Post Book World

More by Carlos Fuentes & Edith Grossman

The Old Gringo

El espejo enterrado

La muerte de Artemio Cruz

Destiny and Desire

This I Believe

The Death of Artemio Cruz

La silla del ĂĄguila

Aura

Happy Families

La regiĂłn mĂĄs transparente

Gringo viejo

La frontera de cristal

The Eagle's Throne

La regiĂłn mĂĄs transparente (EdiciĂłn conmemorativa de la RAE y la ASALE)

Las buenas conciencias

Todas las familias felices

Terra Nostra

Cuentos sobrenaturales

Aquiles o El guerrillero y el asesino

Las cartas del Boom

Terra Nostra

Where the Air Is Clear

Burnt Water

Who's Training Whom?

Los años con Laura Díaz

Vlad

La cabeza de la hidra

El naranjo

The Years with Laura DĂ­az

La voluntad y la fortuna

The Crystal Frontier

Agua quemada

En esto creo

Diana o la cazadora solitaria

Cambio de piel

Adån en Edén

Pantallas de plata

El siglo que despierta

Inez

Diana

Inquieta compañía

The Good Conscience

La muerte de Artemio Cruz

Nietzsche on His Balcony

A viva voz

Constancia y otras novelas para vĂ­rgenes

Cantar de ciegos

CristĂłbal nonato

Cuentos naturales

Distant Relations

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