With elegance and candor, Greg Dening offers a panoramic collection of rich and densely textured essays that demonstrate how we can only understand our present through our consciousness of the past and how in thinking about the past we mirror the time and place of our own living. For Dening, history saturates every moment of our cultural and personal existence. Yet he is keenly aware that the actual past remains fundamentally irreplicable. All histories are culturally crafted artifacts, commensurate with folk tales, stage plays, or films. Whether derived from logbooks and letters, or displayed on music hall stages and Hollywood back lots, history is in essence our making sense of what has and continues to happen, creating for us a sense of our cultural and individual selves. Through juxtapositions of actual events and creative reenactments of them—such as the mutiny on the Bounty in 1787 and the various Hollywood films that depict that event—Dening calls attention to the provocative moment of theatricality in history making where histories, cultures, and selves converge. Moving adeptly across varied terrains, from the frontiers of North America to the islands of the South Pacific, Dening marshals a striking array of diverse, often recalcitrant, sources to examine the tangled histories of cross-cultural clash and engagement. Refusing to portray conquest, colonization, and hegemony simply as abstract processes, Dening, in his own culturally reflexive performance, painstakingly evokes the flesh and form of past actors, both celebrated and unsung, whose foregone lives have become our history.

Papi: A Novel

History

Indiana, Rita

Americas

University of Chicago Press

“Papi’s there, around any corner,” says the eight-year-old girl at the heart of Papi. “But you can’t sit down and wait for him cuz that’s a longer and more painful death.” Living in Santo Domingo, she waits for her father to come back from the United States and lavish her with the glorious rewards of his fame and fortune—shiny new cars and polo shirts, gold chains and Nikes. But when Papi does come back, he turns out to be more “like Jason, the guy from Friday the 13th," than a prince. Papi is a drug dealer, a man who is clearly unreliable and dangerous but nevertheless makes his daughter feel powerful and wholly, terrifyingly alive. Drawing on her memories of a childhood split between Santo Domingo and visits with her father amid the luxuries of the United States, Rita Indiana mixes satire with a child’s imagination, horror with science fiction, in a swirling tale of a daughter’s love, the lure of crime and machismo, and the violence of the adult world. Expertly translated into English for the first time by Achy Obejas, who renders the rhythmic lyricism of Indiana’s Dominican Spanish in language that propels the book forward with the relentless beat of a merengue, Papi is furious, musical, and full of wit—a passionate, overwhelming, and very human explosion of artistic virtuosity.

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Plucked from her life on the streets of post-apocalyptic Santo Domingo, young maid Acilde Figueroa finds herself at the heart of a voodoo prophecy: only she can travel back in time and save the ocean – and humanity – from disaster. But first she must become the man she always was – with the help of a sacred anemone. Tentacle is an electric novel with a big appetite and a brave vision, plunging headfirst into questions of climate change, technology, Yoruba ritual, queer politics, poverty, sex, colonialism and contemporary art. Bursting with punk energy and lyricism, it’s a restless, addictive trip: The Tempest meets the telenovela.

Tentacle

Literature & Fiction

Literary

And Other Stories

These are the children of revolutions, and this is their story. This is the Caribbean. This is Argenis Luna: an artist who no longer paints, a heroin addict who no longer uses, and an overgrown child trying to make sense of his inheritance in a country where his once-revolutionary father is now part of the ruling elite. Thrown out of rehab in Havana, with Goya’s tyrannical god Saturn on his mind, Argenis picks his way through the detritus of an abandoned generation: the drag queens, artists, hustlers and lovers trying to build lives amidst the wreckage. 
Mesmerising and visionary, Made in Saturn is a hangover from a riotous funeral, a rapid-fire elegy for the revolutionary spirit, and a glimpse of hope for all who feel eclipsed by those who came before them.

Made in Saturn

Tentakel

Religion & Spirituality

Religious Studies

Wagenbach Klaus GmbH

Product Description Argenis Luna carga sobre los hombros el mundo entero. La figura gigantesca de su padre, un héroe de la guerrilla urbana dominicana cuyo éxito ha sido más mítico que real. La promesa trunca de su propia carrera de pintor. Los estragos de una adicción que lo define al menor asomo de responsabilidad o de culpa. Tras un viaje obligado a Cuba en pos de un tratamiento de desintoxicación, Argenis vuelve a una cruel Santo Domingo que lo espera con la misma rabia, las mismas contradicciones, la misma codicia que lleva a traicionar todos los sueños e ideales. Vástago de una revolución que devora a sus hijos, tendrá que sobrevivir la tensión doble que el desarraigo y la sed de pertenencia ejercen sin tregua sobre él. En su retrato descarnado del protagonista y su prosa inconfundiblemente caribeña, Rita Indiana demuestra por qué es una de las voces más atractivas de la literatura latinoamericana de hoy.Argenis Luna carries the entire world on his shoulders. The gigantic figure of his father, a hero of the Dominican urban guerrilla whose success has been more mythical than real. The truncated promise of his own career as a painter. The ravages of an addiction that defines the slightest hint of responsibility or guilt. After a forced trip to Cuba in search of a detoxification treatment, Argenis returns to a cruel Santo Domingo who awaits him with the same rage, the same contradictions, the same greed that leads to betraying all dreams and ideals. The child of a revolution that devours it's children, he will have to survive the double tension that uprooting and the thirst for belonging relentlessly exert on him. In her stark portrait of the protagonist and her unmistakably Caribbean prose, Rita Indiana demonstrates why she is one of the most attractive voices in Latin American literature today. About the Author Rita Indiana is a Dominican writer and music producer, and has published the novels Chochueca's Strategy, Papi, Names and Animals and Omicunlé's Maid. She collaborates in El País, Vice and the Guggenheim blog. In 2011, she was among the 100 most influential Latinos according to the newspaper El País.

Hecho en Saturno (Spanish Edition)

Océano Hotel de las letras

This overwhelming novel, which enshrines Rita Indiana as narrator, contains many layers and fascinating twists. The story begins in the apartment of saint and advisor to the Dominican President, Esther Escudero, better known as Omicunlé. His young maid, Alcide Figueroa, whom Esther helped leave a life of prostitution, is about to become plagued by the past, present and future. Including deities that inhabit the Caribbean Sea, political interests, Goya’s prints, gender reassignment and numerous plot twists, few other works of fiction speak of contemporary art as precisely as La mucama de omicunlé. Esta apabullante novela, que supone la consagración de Rita Indiana como narradora, tiene tantas capas de lectura y tantos giros fascinantes que rehúye toda síntesis, todo encorsetamiento. Es más, sólo cabe una invitación entusiasta a la lectura por parte de los editores. Aunque para los que prefieran algunas claves, he aquí un resumen: la historia arranca en el apartamento de la santera y asesora del Presidente dominicano Esther Escudero, llamada también Omicunlé desde que, en un rito afrocubano, se convirtiese en servidora de la diosa del mar Yemayá. Su joven mucama, Alcide Figueroa, a la que Esther ha apartado de la prostitución gracias a la colaboración de otro personaje fundamental, Eric Vitier, está a punto de vivir una historia de pasados, presentes y futuros vertiginosa y, por momentos, aparentemente imposible más allá del relato. Las deidades afroantillanas que habitan el mar Caribe, la música tradicional y la música electrónica, el sexo en todas sus formas (incluso el cambio de sexo), los bucaneros del siglo XVII o los grabados de Goya son otros de los cimientos sobre los que se alza este texto lleno de intrigas y deseos, lleno de aristas y de falsas certezas. Lleno también de tramas y subtramas; de esos intereses políticos, es decir, públicos, que suelen pasar por muchas novelas del presente de un modo inane. Pocas ficciones hay que nos hablen del arte contemporáneo con tanta precisión como La mucama de Omicunlé, pocas también que nos hablen así sobre la contaminación de los mares y océanos; por citar dos de los asuntos que Indiana aborda aquí. Pero en todo momento con una sutileza que rehúye el adoctrinamiento o el cinismo postmodernos para nunca alejarse de lo que es simple y puramente necesidad y vida. Ya lo decíamos al principio: apabullante.

La mucama de Omicunlé (Largo Recorrido, 82) (Spanish Edition)

United States

Editorial Periferica

<div>Argenis Luna, the protagonist, is as much a mythological character as a social outcast. After ten pages of living with him, we understand and love him. His contradictions are ours. Here is the story of the sons of many revolutions. Here is a life in two islands:&nbsp;Cuba to the Dominican Republic. Full of passion, contradictions, and the demolition of the old ideas of justice and equality in the pursuit of capital. This book is so full of universal ideas that we may sometimes think we are reading of our own day to day.&nbsp;</div>

Hecho en Saturno (Largo recorrido) (Spanish Edition)

A girl waits for her father, a Dominican mobster whom she idolizes and who always shows up without warning. All throughout her life her daddy appears, disappears, and reappears, laden with money and an endless supply of cars, girlfriends, and presents. Narrated by this young girl as she awaits the return of her daddy, this urban novel is as moving as it is illuminating regarding Caribbean culture and the world of organized crime. Una niña espera a su padre, un mafioso dominicano al que idolatra y quien siempre llega sin avisar. A lo largo de toda su vida su papi aparece, desaparece y reaparece, cargado de dólares y un sinfín de coches, novias y regalos. Narrada por esta niña joven mientras espera el regreso de su papi, esta novela urbana es tanto estremecedora como reveladora acerca de la cultura caribeña y el mundo del crimen organizado.

Papi (Largo Recorrido, 26) (Spanish Edition)

As in Rita Indiana’s debut novel, Papi, it is a child’s voice—innocent, but with a certain sarcastic edge—that holds forth on a range of topics in Nombres y animales. The narrator discusses animals, music, and television, as well as—more revealingly—family, mothers and fathers, initiation, learning, and what may exist after life. The everyday and the dream-like collide in this novel that reverberates with echoes of the Caribbean and that describes what it means to come of age in that region, what it means to be a woman in Latin America, and what it means to write in the present day.

Nombres y animales (Largo recorrido) (Spanish Edition)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Indiana, Rita. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Indiana, Rita

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Indiana, Rita. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Papi: A Novel

Papi: A Novel

Tentacle

Made in Saturn

Tentakel

Hecho en Saturno (Spanish Edition)

La mucama de Omicunlé (Largo Recorrido, 82) (Spanish Edition)

Hecho en Saturno (Largo recorrido) (Spanish Edition)

Papi (Largo Recorrido, 26) (Spanish Edition)

Nombres y animales (Largo recorrido) (Spanish Edition)