Songs for the Flames: Stories

Product Description 
A new collection of electric, searing stories from award-winning, bestselling author Juan Gabriel Vásquez.\nThe characters in 
 Songs for the Flames are men and women touched by violence—sometimes directly, sometimes only in passing—but whose lives are changed forever, consumed by fire and by unexpected encounters and unyielding forces.\nA photographer becomes obsessed with the traumatic past that an elegant woman, a fellow guest staying at a countryside ranch, would rather leave behind. A military reunion forces a soldier to confront a troubling history, both personal and on a larger scale. And in a tour-de-force piece, the search for a book leads a writer to the fascinating story of why a woman is buried next to a graveyard, rather than in it—and the remarkable account of her journey from France to Colombia as a child orphan.\nJuan Gabriel Vásquez returns to stories with these nine morally complex tales, fresh proof of his narrative versatility and his profound understanding of the lives of others. There’s a romantic wistfulness that combusts with the realities of dangerous histories, both personal and political, to throw these characters into the flames from which they either emerge purified, reborn, or burned and destroyed. 
 Review 
Praise for Songs for the Flames\n“Prodigious author, journalist, and translator Vásquez, one of South America’s most important writers, is once again deftly translated by award-winning [Anne] McLean.” 
 –Booklist, starred review\n“A bravura collection blending autofiction with stories of historical and personal trauma…Vásquez continues to distinguish himself among the finest writers from Latin America.” 
– 
Publishers Weekly 
, starred review\n“Vásquez paints a picture of a country that’s constantly buffeted by violent political rivalries, narcos, and war and where even bystanders get drawn in. A bracing set of stories about smaller traumas embedded among a country’s larger crises.” 
–Kirkus Reviews\nPraise for Juan Gabriel Vásquez\n“Masterly.” – Yiyun Li, 
New York Times Book Review 
 "Like Bolaño, [Vasquez] is a master stylist and a virtuoso of patient pacing and intricate structure." – Lev Grossman, Time Magazine\n"Exceptional." - 
The Wall Street Journal 
 “The narrative escalates, the mystery deepens, and the scope of the story widens with each page.” – Khaled Hosseini\n"Dramatic and surprising." - 
Harper's Magazine 
 "Remarkable." - 
Washington Post 
 "Razor-sharp" — 
O, the Oprah Magazine 
 “Juan Gabriel Vásquez is one of the most original new voices of Latin American literature.” —Mario Vargas Llosa 
 About the Author 
Juan Gabriel Vásquez's previous books include the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winner and national bestseller 
The Sound of Things Falling, and Man Booker International finalist 
The Shape of the Ruins, as well as the award-winning 
Reputations, 
 The Informers, 
The Secret History of Costaguana, and the story collection 
Lovers on All Saints' Day. His books have been published in twenty-eight languages worldwide. After sixteen years in Europe, he now lives in Bogotá.\nAnne McLean is a Spanish translator who has twice won both the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Premio Valle Inclán, and received the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award with Juan Gabriel Vásquez for his novel 
The Sound of Things Falling. She lives in Toronto. 
 Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. 
I\nI have always wanted to write the story the photographer told me, but I could not have done so without her permission or her collusion: other people's stories are inviolable territory, or that's how it's always seemed to me, because often there is something in them that informs or defines a life, and stealing them in order to write them is much worse than revealing a secret. Now, for reasons that don't matter, she has allowed me this usurpation, and in return has only asked that I tell the story just as she told it

Literature & Fiction

VÁSQUEZ, JUAN GABRIEL

Dramas & Plays

Riverhead Books

A new collection of electric, searing stories from award-winning, bestselling author Juan Gabriel Vásquez.\nThe characters in Songs for the Flames are men and women touched by violence—sometimes directly, sometimes only in passing—but whose lives are changed forever, consumed by fire and by unexpected encounters and unyielding forces.\nA photographer becomes obsessed with the traumatic past that an elegant woman, a fellow guest staying at a countryside ranch, would rather leave behind. A military reunion forces a soldier to confront a troubling history, both personal and on a larger scale. And in a tour-de-force piece, the search for a book leads a writer to the fascinating story of why a woman is buried next to a graveyard, rather than in it—and the remarkable account of her journey from France to Colombia as a child orphan.\nJuan Gabriel Vásquez returns to stories with these nine morally complex tales, fresh proof of his narrative versatility and his profound understanding of the lives of others. There’s a romantic wistfulness that combusts with the realities of dangerous histories, both personal and political, to throw these characters into the flames from which they either emerge purified, reborn, or burned and destroyed.

Retrospective: A Novel

An epic yet intimate novel about a Colombian man caught up in the sweep of global historical and ideological revolutions. The Colombian film director, Sergio Cabrera, is in Barcelona for a retrospective of his work. It's a hard time for him: his father, famous actor Fausto Cabrera, has just died; his marriage is in crisis; and his home country has rejected peace agreements that might have ended more than fifty years of war. In the course of a few intense days, as his films are on exhibit, Sergio recalls the events that marked his family's unusual and dramatic lives: especially his father's, his sister Marianella's and his own.&nbsp; Growing up in Colombia as the children of famous actors, Sergio and Marianella were privileged and artistic, until their parents became disillusioned with bourgeois conventions and moved the entire family to China. Mao's Cultural Revolution was underway and the family lived in an entirely ex-pat hotel where they learned Chinese and joined the revolution, became members of the Red Guard, and trained as guerilla fighters. When they returned to Colombia to support the revolution there, they were sent into the countryside to join the guerilla force, were shot at and nearly died. Out of these lives molded by ideology and zealotry, came an artistic second life for Sergio as he escaped the movement and became his country's most celebrated film director. From the Spanish Civil War to the exile of his family to Latin America, and from the Cultural Revolution in China to the guerrilla movements of 1960s Colombia, Sergio and his family's experience is extraordinary by any standards.&nbsp;Equal parts family saga and epic historical novel, Retrospective reveals the story of one man and his family -- based on real people and events -- and a devastating portrait of the forces that shaped their lives, and for half a century turned the world upside down.

United States

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE A sweeping tale of conspiracy theories, assassinations, and twisted obsessions -- the much anticipated masterpiece from Juan Gabriel Vásquez. The Shape of the Ruins is a masterly story of conspiracy, political obsession, and literary investigation. When a man is arrested at a museum for attempting to steal the bullet-ridden suit of a murdered Colombian politician, few notice. But soon this thwarted theft takes on greater meaning as it becomes a thread in a widening web of popular fixations with conspiracy theories, assassinations, and historical secrets; and it haunts those who feel that only they know the real truth behind these killings. This novel explores the darkest moments of a country's past and brings to life the ways in which past violence shapes our present lives. A compulsive read, beautiful and profound, eerily relevant to our times and deeply personal, The Shape of the Ruins is a tour-de-force story by a master at uncovering the incisive wounds of our memories.

The Shape of the Ruins

The Shape of the Ruins: A Novel

A brilliant novel about the power of politics and personal memory from one of South America's literary stars, the New York Times bestselling author of The Sound of Things Falling. Javier Mallarino is a living legend. He is his country's most influential political cartoonist, the consciousness of a nation. A man capable of repealing laws, overturning judges' decisions, destroying politicians' careers with his art. His weapons are pen and ink. Those in power fear him and pay him homage. After four decades of a brilliant career, he's at the height of his powers. But this all changes when he's paid an unexpected visit from a young woman who upends his sense of personal history and forces him to re-evaluate his life and work, questioning his position in the world. In Reputations, Juan Gabriel Vásquez examines the weight of the past, how a public persona intersects with private histories, and the burdens and surprises of memory. In this intimate novel that recalls authors like Coetzee and Ian McEwan, Vásquez plumbs universal experiences to create a masterful story, one that reverberates long after you turn the final page. Named aBest Book of the Year by the New York Times, Newsweek, the Guardian, and Kirkus

Reputations

Shape Of The Ruins

Literary

MacLehose Press

Contemporary

maclehose press uk

THIS IS BRAND NEW BOOK.WE PROVIDE 100% CUSTOMER SATISFACTION.

Sound Of Things Falling

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

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Books by VÁSQUEZ, JUAN GABRIEL

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Songs for the Flames: Stories

Songs for the Flames: Stories

Retrospective: A Novel

Retrospective: A Novel

The Shape of the Ruins

The Shape of the Ruins: A Novel

Reputations

Shape Of The Ruins

Shape Of The Ruins

Sound Of Things Falling