Name: Retrospective: A Novel
Price: 13.88 EUR
Availability: InStock
Author: Juan Gabriel Vasquez
ISBN: 9780593539613

Type

Physical Book

Author

Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Translated by

Anne McLean

Publisher

Riverhead Books

Language

English

Pages

448

Format

Hardcover

ISBN13

9780593539613

Synopsis "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. 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. 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.

Juan Gabriel Vasquez

(Author)

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(Bogotá, 1973) is the author of the short story collections Los amantes de Todos los Santos and Canciones para el incendio (Biblioteca de Narrativa Colombiana Award) and the novels Los informantes, Historia secreta de Costaguana, El ruido de las cosas al caer (Alfaguara Award, Gregor von Rezzori-Città di Firenze Award, The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award), Las reputaciones (Royal Spanish Academy Award, Archbishop Juan de San Clemente Literary Award, Casa da América Latina Award in Lisbon), La forma de las ruinas (Casino da Póvoa Literary Award) and Volver la vista atrás (Mario Vargas Llosa Biennial Novel Award). Vásquez has also published two collections of literary essays, El arte de la distorsión and Viajes con un mapa en blanco, and a brief biography of Joseph Conrad, El hombre de ninguna parte. He has translated works by Joseph Conrad, Victor Hugo, and E. M. Forster, among others. He has won the Simón Bolívar National Journalism Award twice. In 2012, he won the Roger Caillois Award in Paris for his body of work. In 2016, he was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic, and in 2018 he received the Order of Isabel la Católica. His books are published in 30 languages. He is a columnist for the Spanish newspaper El País.

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