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: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Unger, David

Contemporary

University of Wisconsin Press

Marcos Etaleph is a Jewish playboy who lives in Guatemala, in the eighties.We listen as he tells the story of his family, formed by his brother Aaron, his niece David and himself, as they make it through a troublesome city and culture. Owners of several companies, the Etaleph brothers enjoy a privileged position in a society where nobody escapes corruption. When Marcos is held at a hospital facility, suspected of fiscal fraud, his brother uses his contacts within the government and the military to try and solve Marcos’s situation.

Vivir En El Maldito Tropico (Spanish Edition)

Mythology & Folk Tales

Plaza y Janés.

Set in strife-torn Guatemala City in the early 1980s, this sophisticated, quasicomedic tale depicts the decline and near-fall of a prominent Guatemalan Jewish family.First, the Eltaleph family is accused of setting up a dummy corporation in Panama in order to avoid paying Guatemalan taxes. Hence middle-aged Marcos Eltaleph, a playboy whose lust for life is matched only by his lust for women, has been placed under "hospital arrest." As older brother Aaron tries to obtain his release, Marcos ponders his scapegoat role in the family and the machinations of his new girlfriend, a fiery Colombian former prostitute who, in this hour of need, Marcos believes has taken up with his former business partner. Then, in the face of military rule, terrorism, and sabotage, Marcos learns the truth about his brother, only to find that sibling secrets can be every bit as dangerous as civil unrest.

Life in the Damn Tropics: A Novel (The Library of Modern Jewish Literature)

United States

Syracuse Univ Pr

"Based on a true story, The Mastermind is a tense political thriller about a successful Guatemalan lawyer whose life takes a strange turn when a failed affair leads to his faking his own death and implicating the government. Unger's searing political criticism blends with gripping real-life details to sketch an unforgettable picture of modern Guatemalan society." --World Literature Today
"The Mastermind teems with the pulse of daily life in the tropics: the sights and sounds, the smells and tastes. He takes millionaires, whores, provocateurs, hit men, bankers with deep pockets, and political agendas, and weaves them into a dazzling tapestry. What befalls those driven by hubris--the writing on the wall, a fall from the heights to the depths--are part of the pattern, the biblical tales of warning, the consequences that cannot be avoided...Unger is the poet of his complicated homeland...How fortunate we are that when Unger speaks for them, his words soar." --American Book Review
"Unger has given us not just a riveting portrait of a bizarre series of events, but a window onto the ethical challenges we all face." --Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas
"The corruption and hopelessness of modern Guatemalan politics interfere in the life of a womanizing lawyer in this engaging novel...Through the lens of Guillermo's doomed relationship, Unger successfully evokes the tragedy and futility of life in Guatemala in a raw and unforgettable novel." --Publishers Weekly
"This novel by Guatemalan-born Unger (The Price of Escape, 2011) offers a compelling portrait of a country shattered by government corruption, civil war, mass murder, drug cartels, ordinary street crime, inequality, desperate poverty, and even the effects of globalization....The rich but tragic sense of place Unger develops in this intriguing literary thriller will appeal to lovers of international crime fiction." --Booklist
"Unger bases his latest novel on the true story of a Guatemalan lawyer who planned his own murder in 2009, fleshing out the story with healthy shots of sex and corruption....The political elements in Unger's story become more gripping through the eyes of his flawed protagonist. He's especially good at subtly shifting the tone of the narrative so that danger signs build up around Guillermo before either he or the reader realizes." --Kirkus Reviews
"This novel contains so much background and capable storytelling that readers are likely to be blown away by the rich depths of David Unger's writing. This is a book that pulls no punches...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
By all appearances, Guillermo Rosensweig is the epitome of success. He 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. (In April 2011, the New Yorker published an article by David Grann about Rosenberg which has been optioned by Matt Damon for his directorial debut.) This is a fascinating depiction of modern-day Guatemala and the corrupt, criminal, and threatening reality that permeates its society.

The Mastermind

Akashic Books Ltd

The true story of José Andrés, an award-winning chef, food activist, and founder of World Central Kitchen, a disaster-relief organization that uses the power of food to nourish communities after catastrophe strikes. When a terrible earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, chef José Andrés knew he needed to help. Within a few hours of the disaster, he had gathered friends, they flew to the island, and they began cooking rice and beans for the hungry locals. This trip changed the life of the successful chef and led him to found World Central Kitchen, a disaster-relief organization that has fed more than 200 million people affected by natural disasters, the COVID pandemic, and war. This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of a passionate chef who uses the power of food to nurture people in need, one plate at a time.

José Feeds the World: How a famous chef feeds millions of people in need around the world

Children's Books

Biographies

duopress

A Lesson in Reunions and Murder

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

David Unger

In My Eyes, You Are Beautiful is a coming-of-age novel, that narrates the life of an Indigenous young woman. It depicts the transformation of Olivia Padilla Xuc, an illiterate six-year-old picking coffee in the Guatemalan countryside as she becomes a liberated, powerful woman working in Mexico City. Through Olivia’s deeply moving narrative, we explore the possibility of change and growth of an indigenous woman as she delve into issues of racism, economic opportunity and self-worth – the vital themes that first nation people confront globally while they try to better themselves in societies convinced of their worthlessness. Against an historical period of armed conflict, turmoil and conflict, Olivia Padilla is funny, intense, imaginative, alternately serious and playful. Her courage allows her to explore her sexuality in Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and Italy as she builds a satisfying, independent life few people could have considered possible.

In my eyes, you are beautiful: A Novel

Mosaic Press

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 in the gas cookstove, which Felipe knows how to light -- if he can only reach the box of matches above the stove. And there's the endless fascination of the glass tank of live lobsters -- including the king of them all, Genghis Khan, who stares at Davico with round unblinking black eyes, waving his antennas like submarine periscopes. 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 comfort him during the blackouts. But it is not enough to console him 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.

Sleeping with the Light On

GROUNDWOOD BOOKS *

"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 does a great job with fish-out-of-water situations, as [protagonist] Samuel’s travails--sometimes Kafkaesque, sometimes Laurel and Hardy--nicely pit his timidity against his growing desperation." --Publishers Weekly "David Unger's tale utterly seduces with its mix of the exotic and the familiar." --Toronto Star Unger’s rendering of human contradiction is masterful, for in the space of Samuel’s four days of awe, Unger reveals life’s slippery terms of engagement in all their complexity with a clarity that still contains compassion . . . We can be grateful for the message of this wondrous book: despite our fears, even the least heroic among us can find the will to go forward.” --Literature and Arts of the Americas 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 remake his life in the new world. Part character study and part riveting narrative of a German Jew escaping the Nazis, this novel provides its own mix of Franz Kafka, Joseph Conrad, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline, as Samuel stumbles to get his footing in a hostile setting. David Unger was born in Guatemala City in 1950 and now lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of two previous novels and a story collection. He has translated sixteen books into English, including works by Nicanor Parra, Silvia Molina, Elena Garro, Barbara Jacobs, Mario Benedetti, and Rigoberta Menchú. He is considered one of Guatemala's major living writers even though he writes exclusively in English.

The Price of Escape

Una lectura excepcional que captura de forma brillante el espíritu de la Latinoamérica moderna. Para mí, eres divina narra la historia de Olivia, una chica cualquiera que vive en un plantío de café en medio de las verdes y frondosas montañas de Guatemala. Al igual que su madre y muchas otras mujeres en las mismas condiciones, parece destinada a convertirse en un ser desechable: golpeada y abusada por aquellos que ostentan el poder. Su suerte cambia el día en que se topa con la hermana Carina, una monja que se encarga de que pueda asistir a un internado en Antigua. A partir de ese momento, Olivia se embarcará en una travesía para encontrarse a sí misma y hallar el amor que nunca creyó merecer.

Para Mi, Eres Divina (Spanish Edition)

Debolsillo]

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

Books by Unger, David