Drawing directly and movingly from Yoram Kaniuk’s own experiences as a teenaged soldier in the Palmach unit of the Israeli army during the 1948 War for Independence, this memoir-novel portrays an entire generation of young men from good homes who found themselves immersed in a struggle they did not fully understand. Far from trying to justify his own actions, Kaniuk opts instead for self-criticism, reflecting on the pointlessness of war and the foolishness of a group of inexperienced, white-collar boys turned brothers-in-arms who senselessly imagined that there was some glory in dying so young. The novel offers a singular vision of a crucial moment in modern history and sheds some light on the complicated situation in the Middle East. It is also a brave, shocking, and tragic story about the importance of recognizing the follies of the past.

1948 (Libros Del Asteroide)

Literature & Fiction

Kaniuk, Yoram

Genre Fiction

Libros del Asteroide

Bajo una estrella cruel: Una vida en Praga (1941-1968)

Margolius Kovály, Heda

Un paraíso inalcanzable

MORTIMER, John

Contemporary

In this vivid, humorous autobiography, Wenguang Huang recounts his coming of age in the 1970s in Xi’an, in central China, during the country’s Cultural Revolution. When he was nine years old, his grandmother became obsessed with her own death and with the funeral rites that would grant her eternal peace. Terrified by the thought of cremation—obligatory in communist China—she made her family promise to bury her in her native village. Huang’s father gathered what little savings he had and built a coffin, appointing Huang, his oldest son, as coffin keeper—a responsibility that meant, among other things, sleeping next to the coffin at night. Over the next 20 years, even as profound social and political changes gripped the country, the Huang family diligently planned the funeral. In this memoir of the last three decades of the 20th century, Huang, a translator and journalist who ultimately immigrated to the United States, paints a portrait of a society caught between ancient traditions and a radical push for modernization of the Maoist regime. As he recounts his own family’s story, Huang offers illuminating insights into the contradictions that make up modern China.

El pequeño guardia rojo (Spanish Edition)

Biographies & Memoirs

Huang, Wenguang

Arts & Literature

El rey de los tejones

Hensher, Philip

Literary

Jerry Fein is a small-time lawyer and booking agent, who also happens to own an apartment building in Boston. When his tenants refuse to pay rent in protest to poor conditions and an infestation of rats, Jerry knows just the way to evict them and calls on his friend Leo, who is a professional arsonist. However, the task proves to be more challenging than anticipated: Leo and his co-criminal Jimmy will have to manage to bribe the inspector to turn the other way. La rata en llamas is one of Higgins best thriller novels, and is a clear example of his unique ability to realistically capture criminal lie.

La rata en llamas (Spanish Edition)

HIGGINS, George V.

Diario de una dama de provincias

Delafield, E.M.

Chengdu, Central China, 1919. The brothers Gao—Juexin, Juemin, and Juehui—live according to the traditions their family has followed for centuries. Four generations now live under the same roof, which gives Grandfather Gao, the clan's patriarch, a special pride. In the great family house, the older members continue their unmoved lives as if nothing were changing; as if General Zhang's troops, preparing a new attack at the gates of the city, could not reach them; as if the new airs from books and magazines weren't transforming their existence. The three Gao brothers are in agreement that the old traditions—arranged marriage, outdated rituals, and foot binding and long hair requirements for women—lack meaning, but not everyone has the strength necessary to rebel. Published for the first time in 1931, Familia portrays the disintegration of Feudalism in China at the beginning of the 20th century and is considered one of the most important works of contemporary Chinese literature.

Familia (Spanish Edition)

Jin, Ba

A sangre y fuego: Héroes, bestias y mártires de España

Chaves Nogales, Manuel

El complot mongol

Comics & Graphic Novels

Bernal, Rafael

Graphic Novels

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