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"A gem of a book, easily the best I've read this year. A
contemporary police procedural with a literary edge. I was rooting
for the flawed, but deeply compassionate Melchor Marin from the
first page to the last. Highly recommended" M W Craven Two dead at
the Adell house . . . But nothing in the duty officer's report can
prepare Melchor Marin for what he finds. A wealthy couple tortured
to death in an almost ritualistic manner. The little town of
Gandesa in the backwater region of Terra Alta, Catalonia, is
suddenly at the eye of a media storm. Melchor is no stranger to
notoriety. He was sent to Terra Alta to lie low after foiling a
terrorist attack. And, before that, he was jailed for his role as
driver for a Colombian drug cartel, his decision to join the police
inspired by a desire to avenge his mother's murder and a copy of
Les Miserables from the prison library. Gradually, the leads in the
Adell case dry up, and Melchor is ordered to back off. He doesn't,
willing to sacrifice his reputation and career in a ruthless
pursuit of the truth. But dusk is already falling on the darkest
night of his life. Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean
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Oblivion - A Memoir (Paperback)
Hector Abad; Translated by Anne McLean, Rosalind Harvey
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R478
R395
Discovery Miles 3 950
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"An irreplaceable testimony of the struggle for democracy and
tolerance in Latin America." "--El Pais
"
Hector Abad's "Oblivion "is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written
memorial to the author's father, Hector Abad Gomez, whose criticism
of the Colombian regime led to his murder by paramilitaries in
1987. Twenty years in the writing, it paints an unforgettable
picture of a man who followed his conscience and paid for it with
his life during one of the darkest periods in Latin America's
recent history.
"A remarkable act of personal history: brave, revelatory and
unflinchingly honest" WILLIAM BOYD "There is no-one writing in
English like this: engaged humanity achieving a hard-won wisdom"
DAVID MILLS, The Times Lord of All the Dead is a courageous journey
into Javier Cercas' family history and that of a country collapsing
from a fratricidal war. The author revisits Ibahernando, his
parents' village in southern Spain, to research the life of Manuel
Mena. This ancestor, dearly loved by Cercas' mother, died in combat
at the age of nineteen during the battle of the Ebro, the bloodiest
episode in Spain's history. Who was Manuel Mena? A fascist hero
whose memory is an embarrassment to the author, or a young idealist
who happened to fight on the wrong side? And how should we judge
him, as grandchildren and great-grandchildren of that generation,
interpreting history from our supposed omniscience and the
misleading perspective of a present full of automatic answers, that
fails to consider the particularities of each personal and family
drama? Wartime epics, heroism and death are some of the underlying
themes of this unclassifiable novel that combines road trips,
personal confessions, war stories and historical scholarship,
finally becoming an incomparable tribute to the author's mother and
the incurable scars of an entire generation.
The Elimination of Morality combines a criticism of utilitarianism with an argument for the futility of bioethics. It challenges the conception of reason in ethics central to both, and argues that a philosophical training confers no special authority to make pronouncements on moral issues. It proposes that pure utilitarianism eliminates the essential ingredients of moral thinking.
"The Elimination of Morality" strikes at the root of the dominant
conception of what medical ethics involves. It addresses the
fundamental and timely question of the "kind" of contribution
philosophers can make to the discussion of medico-moral issues and
the work of health care professionals. It has two main objectives.
The first is to establish the futility of bioethics. Anne Maclean
challenges the conception of reason in ethics which is integral to
the utilitarian tradition and which underlies the whole bioethical
enterprise. She argues that the enterprise is philosophically
misguided - philosophers do not possess moral expertise and have no
special authority to pronounce upon moral issues. In particular,
she shows that judgments about the morality of killing cannot be
founded on a prior philosophical theory of "the value of life". The
final chapter demolishes the "medical model" of illness and health
which give exaggerated powers to the doctor, and proposes a role
for the philosopher in medical education which deprofessionalizes
life and death decisions. The second objective is to expose the
inadequacy of a utilitarian account of moral reasoning and moral
life.
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Retrospective (Hardcover)
Juan Gabriel Vasquez; Translated by Anne McLean
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R644
R531
Discovery Miles 5 310
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"One of the great novels to have been written in our language"
MARIO VARGAS LLOSA "Beautifully written and gripping" Guardian He
thought that memories were invisible like light, and just as smoke
made light show, there must be a way for memories to be seen... In
October 2016, the real-life Colombian film director Sergio Cabrera
is attending a retrospective of his films in Barcelona. It's a
difficult time for him: his father, Fausto Cabrera, has just died;
his marriage is in crisis; and his country has rejected peace
agreements that might have ended more than fifty years of war. In
the course of a few turbulent and intense days, Sergio will recall
the events that marked the family's life, and especially his
father's, his sister Marianella's and his own. From the Spanish
Civil War to the exile of his republican family in Latin America,
and from the Cultural Revolution in China to the guerrilla
movements of 1960s Latin America, not only will do we discover a
series of adventures extraordinary by any standards, but also a
devastating portrait of the forces that for half a century turned
the world upside down and created the one we now inhabit.
Retrospective is a revelatory and unforgettable novel. Translated
from the Spanish by Anne McLean
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Prey for the Shadow
Javier Cercas; Translated by Anne McLean
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R690
R564
Discovery Miles 5 640
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The mayor of Barcelona is being blackmailed. A sex tape from her
student days - one she never knew existed. The price: 300,000 euros
and her immediate resignation. A political chameleon who swept to
power on a populist wave, she has her enemies. Nor can she trust
those closest to her. Both her ex-husband and her deputy would
profit from her fall. Melchor MarÃn, living a quiet life in Terra
Alta, is tempted back to Barcelona to work the case. But what
seemed a simple matter has its roots in far more serious and
disturbing crimes. With the mayor on the verge of capitulation, a
shock revelation changes everything - not least the course of
Melchor's life. At long last, his heart's dark desire is in his
grasp. Praise for Even the Darkest Night "A gem of a book, easily
the best I've read this year" M W Craven "A wonderful novel. I look
forward to many more Melchor stories" A N Wilson "The first in what
promises to be an excellent series" Guardian Translated from the
Spanish by Anne McLean
"Like Bolano, Vasquez is a master stylist and a virtuoso of patient
pacing and intricate structure" LEV GROSSMAN, Time Magazine "Juan
Gabriel Vasquez . . . has succeeded Garcia Marquez as the literary
grandmaster of Colombia" ARIEL DORFMAN, New York Review of Books A
morally complex, searing set of stories by the award-winning author
of The Sound of Things Falling and The Shape of the Ruins
(shortlisted for the Booker International Prize 2019). A renowned
photographer probes a traumatic incident in the life of a fellow
guest at a countryside ranch. A chance meeting at a regimental
reunion obliges a Korean War veteran to confront a shameful secret.
And in the title story, an internet search for a book published in
1887 leads to the discovery of the life of a remarkable woman:
Aurelia de Leon, who arrives in Colombia as a child orphan of the
Great War, but as a free-spirited adult runs foul of her adoptive
country's deep conservatism. The characters in Songs for the Flames
are all men and women touched by violence - sometimes directly,
sometimes tangentially - but the lives of all of them are
irrevocably changed by the experience. Translated from the Spanish
by Anne McLean
_______________ 'His novels probe the sore spots and raw wounds of
contemporary Spain, their cunning and complexity leavened by a
light touch and an easy, graceful style' - Boyd Tonkin, Independent
on Sunday 'The beauty of this intelligently probing novel is that
one is left wondering if we ever truly know anything about anybody
- that anybody including ourselves' - Scotsman 'Compelling ... the
real strengths of the book are in Cercas's unadorned prose, once
again deftly translated by Anne McLean, and in his ear for the
rhythms of everyday speech' - Guardian _______________ Longlisted
for the Dublin Literary Award 2016, this novel from the author of
Soldiers of Salamis and The Anatomy of a Moment tells the story of
three teenage outsiders in post-Franco Spain In the late 1970s, as
Spain was adrift between the death of Franco and the rebirth of
democracy, people were moving from the poor south to the cities of
the north in search of a better life. But the work, when there was
any, was poorly paid and the housing squalid. Out of this world of
limited opportunities a generation of delinquents arose whose
prospects were stifled and whose rebellion would be brief and
violent... One summer's day in Gerona a bespectacled,
sixteen-year-old Ignacio Canas, known to his few friends as
Gafitas, is working in an amusement arcade, when a charismatic
teenager walks in with the most beautiful girl Canas has ever seen.
Zarco and Tere take over his pinball machine and his life. Thirty
years on and now a successful criminal defence lawyer, Canas has
tried to put that long, hot summer of drugs, yearning and
delinquency behind him. But when Tere appears in his office and
asks him to represent El Zarco, who has been in prison all this
time, what else can Gafitas do but accept? A powerful novel of love
and hate, of loyalty and betrayal, of true integrity and the prison
celebrity can become, Outlaws confirms Javier Cercas as one of the
most thrilling novelists writing anywhere in the world today.
_______________ 'Cercas adroitly balances the earlier criminal
thrills with the later moral and emotional complexities' - New
Statesman 'A moving meditation on youth, love, betrayal and the
media, as well as an uncompromising political novel. Cercas has yet
again expanded our idea of what fiction can do' - Juan Gabriel
Vasquez, author of The Secret History of Costaguana
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The Farm (Paperback)
Hector Abad; Translated by Anne McLean
1
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R422
R351
Discovery Miles 3 510
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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When the Angel family's beloved home in the Antioquian wilderness
falls into danger, they manage to defend it against the guerrillas
and, later, the paramilitaries - but at a high price. After their
parents' death, Pilar, Eva and Tono have to decide the fate of
their father's legacy. While Pilar and Tono want to keep La Oculta,
Eva, who experienced something terrible at the old farm house, is
determined to sell. As the siblings each struggle with their own
problems, their inner conflicts threaten to tear apart not only
their home but also their family.
Lord of All the Dead is a courageous journey into Javier Cercas'
family history and that of a country collapsing from a fratricidal
war. The author revisits Ibahernando, his parents' village in
southern Spain, to research the life of Manuel Mena. This ancestor,
dearly loved by Cercas' mother, died in combat at the age of
nineteen during the battle of the Ebro, the bloodiest episode in
Spain's history. Who was Manuel Mena? A fascist hero whose memory
is an embarrassment to the author, or a young idealist who happened
to fight on the wrong side? And how should we judge him, as
grandchildren and great-grandchildren of that generation,
interpreting history from our supposed omniscience and the
misleading perspective of a present full of automatic answers, that
fails to consider the particularities of each personal and family
drama? Wartime epics, heroism and death are some of the underlying
themes of this unclassifiable novel that combines road trips,
personal confessions, war stories and historical scholarship,
finally becoming an incomparable tribute to the author's mother and
the incurable scars of an entire generation. Translated from the
Spanish by Anne McLean
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Retrospective (Paperback)
Juan Gabriel Vásquez; Translated by Anne McLean
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R389
R313
Discovery Miles 3 130
Save R76 (20%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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"One of the great novels to have been written in our language"
MARIO VARGAS LLOSA "Beautifully written and gripping" Guardian He
thought that memories were invisible like light, and just as smoke
made light show, there must be a way for memories to be seen... In
October 2016, the real-life Colombian film director Sergio Cabrera
is attending a retrospective of his films in Barcelona. It's a
difficult time for him: his father, Fausto Cabrera, has just died;
his marriage is in crisis; and his country has rejected peace
agreements that might have ended more than fifty years of war. In
the course of a few turbulent and intense days, Sergio will recall
the events that marked the family's life, and especially his
father's, his sister Marianella's and his own. From the Spanish
Civil War to the exile of his republican family in Latin America,
and from the Cultural Revolution in China to the guerrilla
movements of 1960s Latin America, not only will do we discover a
series of adventures extraordinary by any standards, but also a
devastating portrait of the forces that for half a century turned
the world upside down and created the one we now inhabit.
Retrospective is a revelatory and unforgettable novel. Translated
from the Spanish by Anne McLean
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Way Far Away
Anne McLean, Victor Meadowcroft, Evelio Rosero
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R372
R299
Discovery Miles 2 990
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Stranger to the Moon (Paperback)
Evelio Rosero; Translated by Anne McLean, Victor Meadowcroft
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R349
R283
Discovery Miles 2 830
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The renowned Colombian writer Evelio Rosero has never been one to
shy away from the darker aspects of his nation's history and
society. His magnificent novel Stranger to the Moon portrays a
world that seems to exist outside time and place but taps into the
dark myths and collective subconscious of his country, with its
harrowing inequality and violence. A parable of pointed social
criticism, with naked humans imprisoned in a house in order to
serve the needs of "the vicious clothed ones," the novel describes
what ensues when a single "naked one" privately rebels, risking his
own death and that of his fellow prisoners. Each subsequent section
of the book adds further layers to the ritualistic and bizarre
social order inhabited by its characters. Insects and reptiles are
trained as agents and spies against the naked ones, and only the
most fortunate humans manage to reach old age by taking up
strategic spots near the kitchens and grabbing for the fiercely
contested food. Stranger to the Moon is a brave, powerful, and
distinctive novel by a writer who arguably holds the strongest
claim to the title of Colombia's greatest living author.
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Retrospective (Paperback)
Juan Gabriel Vasquez; Translated by Anne McLean
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R546
R450
Discovery Miles 4 500
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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"One of the great novels to have been written in our language"
MARIO VARGAS LLOSA "Beautifully written and gripping" Guardian He
thought that memories were invisible like light, and just as smoke
made light show, there must be a way for memories to be seen... In
October 2016, the real-life Colombian film director Sergio Cabrera
is attending a retrospective of his films in Barcelona. It's a
difficult time for him: his father, Fausto Cabrera, has just died;
his marriage is in crisis; and his country has rejected peace
agreements that might have ended more than fifty years of war. In
the course of a few turbulent and intense days, Sergio will recall
the events that marked the family's life, and especially his
father's, his sister Marianella's and his own. From the Spanish
Civil War to the exile of his republican family in Latin America,
and from the Cultural Revolution in China to the guerrilla
movements of 1960s Latin America, not only will do we discover a
series of adventures extraordinary by any standards, but also a
devastating portrait of the forces that for half a century turned
the world upside down and created the one we now inhabit.
Retrospective is a revelatory and unforgettable novel. Translated
from the Spanish by Anne McLean
An author (a version of Vila-Matas himself) presents a short
"history" of a secret society, the Shandies, who are obsessed with
the concept of "portable literature." The society is entirely
imagined, but in this rollicking, intellectually playful book, its
members include writers and artists like Marcel Duchamp, Aleister
Crowley, Witold Gombrowicz, Federico Garcia Lorca, Man Ray, and
Georgia O'Keefe. The Shandies meet secretly in apartments, hotels,
and cafes all over Europe to discuss what great literature really
is: brief, not too serious, penetrating the depths of the
mysterious. We witness the Shandies having adventures in stationary
submarines, underground caverns, African backwaters, and the
cultural capitals of Europe.
"To Bury the Dead" is an investigation of a brutal political murder
and fascinating literary feud hidden by the dust of the Spanish
Civil War. At the end of 1936, five months after Franco and his
allies staged their coup against the Republican government of
Spain, Jose Robles was arrested by undercover police during the
increasingly bitter Civil War. Held under suspicion of treason
under false charges, his subsequent detention and eventual
execution were kept secret by the government. A close friend of
Robles, the writer John Dos Passos, vowed to uncover the truth but
was met only with a conspiracy of silence.Ignacio Martinez de Pison
picks up the trail where Dos Passos left off, obsessed with
discovering the true story. He traces the two men's long
friendship, establishes their Republican credentials and tries to
discover how and why Robles was killed, an answer that might lead
to an explanation of why two of the most famous American writers of
the time, John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway, both committed
anti-fascists, went from being close friends to irreconcilable
enemies. A story about real people whose lives were caught up in
and shattered by political events, "To Bury the Dead" exposes power
struggles, ideological feuds and deadly political rivalries.
* National Bestseller
* Hailed by Edmund White as "a brilliant new novel" on the cover of
the "New York Times Book Review"
* One of NPR's 6 Best Books of the Summer
* "Esquire "recommends "The Sound of Things Falling" "if you read
only one book this month"
* Starred early reviews from" Publishers Weekly," "Booklist,"
"Library Journal," and "Kirkus"
* Lauded by Jonathan Franzen, E. L. Doctorow and many others
From a global literary star comes a prize-winning tour de force -
an intimate portrayal of the drug wars in Colombia.
Juan Gabriel Vasquez has been hailed not only as one of South
America's greatest literary stars, but also as one of the most
acclaimed writers of his generation. In this gorgeously wrought,
award-winning novel, Vasquez confronts the history of his home
country, Colombia. In the city of Bogota, Antonio Yammara reads an
article about a hippo that had escaped from a derelict zoo once
owned by legendary Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. The
article transports Antonio back to when the war between Escobar's
Medellin cartel and government forces played out violently in
Colombia's streets and in the skies above. Back then, Antonio
witnessed a friend's murder, an event that haunts him still. As he
investigates, he discovers the many ways in which his own life and
his friend's family have been shaped by his country's recent
violent past. His journey leads him all the way back to the 1960s
and a world on the brink of change: a time before narco-trafficking
trapped a whole generation in a living nightmare. Vasquez is "one
of the most original new voices of Latin American literature,"
according to Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, and "The Sound
of Things Falling "is his most personal, most contemporary novel to
date, a masterpiece that takes his writing--and will take his
literary star--even higher.
The International Bestseller of the Spanish Civil War - Winner of
the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize In the final moments of the
Spanish Civil War, fifty prominent Nationalist prisoners are
executed by firing squad. Among them is the writer and fascist
Rafael Sanchez Mazas. As the guns fire, he escapes into the forest,
and can hear a search party and their dogs hunting him down. The
branches move and he finds himself looking into the eyes of a
militiaman, and faces death for the second time that day. But the
unknown soldier simply turns and walks away. Sanchez Mazas becomes
a national hero and the soldier disappears into history. As Cercas
sifts the evidence to establish what happened, he realises that the
true hero may not be Sanchez Mazas at all, but the soldier who
chose not to shoot him. Who was he? Why did he spare him? And might
he still be alive? Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean
*Financial Times Best Summer Books 2022* "A gem of a book, easily
the best I've read this year. A contemporary police procedural with
a literary edge. I was rooting for the flawed, but deeply
compassionate Melchor Marin from the first page to the last. Highly
recommended" M W Craven A Terra Alta Investigation. Winner of
Spain's biggest literary prize - the Premio Planeta When Melchor
goes to investigate the horrific double-murder of a rich printer
and his wife in rural Cataluna nothing quite adds up. The young cop
from the big city, hero of a foiled terrorist attack, has been sent
to Terra Alta till things quieten down. Observant, streetwise and
circumspect, Melchor is an also an outsider. The son of a Barcelona
prostitute who never knew his father, Melchor rapidly fell into
trouble and was jailed at 19, convicted of driving for a Colombian
drug cartel. While he was behind bars, he read Hugo's Les
Miserables, and then his mother was murdered. Admiring of both Jean
Valjean and Javert - but mostly the relentless Javert - he decided
to become a policeman. Now he is out for revenge, but he can wait,
and meanwhile he has discovered happiness with his wife, the local
librarian, and their daughter, who is, of course, called Cossette.
Slowly at first, and then more rapidly once ordered to abandon the
case, he tracks the clues that will reveal the larger truth behind
what appears at first to be a cold-blooded, professional killing.
Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean
Maria de los Reyes Castillo Bueno (1902-1997), a black woman known
as "Reyita," recounts her life in Cuba over the span of ninety
years. Reyita's voice is at once dignified, warm, defiant, strong,
poetic, principled, and intelligent. Her story--as told to and
recorded by her daughter Daisy Castillo--begins in Africa with her
own grandmother's abduction by slave-traders and continues through
a century of experiences with prejudice, struggle, and change in
Cuba for Reyita and her numerous family members.
Sensitive to and deeply knowledgeable of the systemic causes and
consequences of poverty, Reyita's testimony considers the impact of
slavery on succeeding generations, her mother's internalized
racism, and Cuba's residual discrimination. The humiliation and
poverty inflicted on the black Cuban community as well as her
decision to marry a white man to ensure a higher standard of living
form the basis of other chapters. Reyita actively participated in
the life of the community--often caring for the children of
prostitutes along with her own eight children and giving herbal
medicine and "spiritualist" guidance to ill or troubled neighbors.
She describes her growing resistance, over five decades of
marriage, to her husband's sexism and negativity. Strong-willed and
frank about her sexuality as well as her religious and political
convictions, Reyita recounts joining the revolutionary movement in
the face of her husband's stern objections, a decision that added
significant political purpose to her life. At book's end, Reyita
radiates gratification that her 118 descendants have many different
hues of skin, enjoy a variety of professions, and--"most
importantly"--are free of racial prejudice.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2019 "Like Don
DeLillo's JFK-themed Libra, the novel is an intoxicating blend of
fact and fiction" Glasgow Herald "A masterful writer" Nicole Krauss
"Vasquez has succeeded Garcia Marquez as the literary grandmaster
of Colombia" Ariel Dorfman, New York Review of Books "A dazzlingly
choreographed network of echoes and mirrorings" T.L.S. It takes the
form of personal and formal investigations into two political
assassinations - the murders of Rafael Uribe Uribe in 1914, the man
who inspired Garcia Marquez's General Buendia in One Hundred Years
of Solitude, and of the charismatic Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, the man
who might have been Colombia's J.F.K., gunned down on the brink of
success in the presidential elections of 1948. Separated by more
than 30 years, the two murders at first appear unconnected, but as
the novel progresses Vasquez reveals how between them they contain
the seeds of the violence that has bedevilled Colombia ever since.
The Shape of the Ruins is Vasquez's most ambitious, challenging and
rewarding novel to date. His previous novel, The Sound of Things
Falling, won Spain's Alfaguara Prize, Italy's Von Rezzori Prize and
the 2014 Dublin IMPAC literary Award. Winner of the Premio
Literario Casino da Povoa 2018 Finalist for the Bienal de Novela
Mario Vargas Llosa 2016 Finalist for the Premio Bottari Lattes
Grinzane 2017 Finalist for the Prix Femina Finalist for the Prix
Medicis Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean
What does it take to pass into another world? The magic in this
world is dying. Prophecy tells how the creatures of magic must be
moved to Shiri-la before they die with it. The unicorns must ensure
this happens, and the Keepers must protect the unicorns. Tangea Ash
is a Keeper, but even her unicorn Silverwood questions why she was
chosen. Magic binds her to darkness. But there is always a reason.
And all must learn to have faith.
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