Three unconnected people travel north, each passing in isolation over one of the most troubled and controversial dividing lines in the world: the Mexico?US border. But in a melee of language and blood, their stories and the stories of those they meet of a young serial killer, a waitress and graphic novelist and her lover (and former professor), and an outsider artist in a mental institution gradually begin to coalesce. Daring in both its protagonists and its structure, Edmundo Paz Sold n's Norte is a fast-paced, vivid, and operatic blending of distinct voices. Together, they lay bare the darkness of the line over which these souls like so many others have passed. A prominent member of a new generation of Latin American writers, Paz Soldan stands in defiant opposition to the magical realism of the past century, instead grounding his work in political, economic, and historical realities. Norte is no exception; it is a tale of displacement and the very human costs of immigration. Shocking with its violence even as it thrills with its language, confounding rather than cowering under the clich of the murderous, drug-dealing immigrant, Norte is a disquieting, imperative work an undeniable reflection of our fragmented modern world.

Shifting viewpoints, magic realism, and narrative mastery are all integral parts of "Nostalgia," Romanian author and perennial Nobel Prize favorite Mircea Cartarescu's masterpiece. The book is comprised of five unrelated stories: "The Roulette Player," in which a desperately unlucky man manages to amass a fortune by taking part in dangerous games of Russian roulette; "Mentardy" narrates the travails of a prepubescent messiah who loses his powers with the advent of his sexuality; "The Twins," a brave exploration of youthful rage; "REM," in which a middle-aged woman falls in love with a university student in a nightmarish Bucharest; and "The Architect," in which a man who cannot silence his car horn becomes obsessed with sound--an obsession that will have cosmic consequences. Readers eager to acquaint themselves with one of the most important voices in modern European literature will not want to miss this sophisticated, haunting collection of stories.
"Puntos de vista variables, el realismo magico y la maestria narrativa son facetas integras de "Nostalgia," la obra maestra del autor rumano y favorito perenne para el Premio Nobel, Mircea Cartarescu. El libro consta de cinco cuentos no relacionados: "El ruletista," en el que un hombre al que nunca le ha sonreido la suerte hace fortuna participando en letales sesiones de ruleta rusa; "El Mendebil," el cual narra los infortunios de un mesias impuber que pierde sus poderes magicos con el advenimiento de su propia sexualidad; "Los gemelos," una bizarra exploracion de la ira juvenil; "REM," en el cual una mujer de mediana edad se enamora de un estudiante de instituto en una Bucarest pesadillesca; y "El arquitecto," en el cual un hombre que no logra silenciar el claxon de su coche se obsesiona con el sonido--una obsesion que tendra consecuencias cosmicas. El lector interesado en conocer a una de las voces mas importantes de la literatura europea moderna no se querra perder esta sofisticada, inolvidable coleccion de historias."

"The Other Latinos" addresses an important topic: the presence in the United States of Latin American and Caribbean immigrants from countries other than Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Focusing on the Andes, Central America, and Brazil, the book brings together essays by a number of accomplished scholars.

Michael Jones-Correa's chapter is a lucid study of the complex issues in posing "established" and "other," and "old" and "new" in the discussion of Latino immigrant groups. Helen B. Marrow follows with general observations that bring out the many facets of race, ethnicity, and identity. Claret Vargas analyzes the poetry of Eduardo Mitre, followed by Edmundo Paz Soldan's reflections on Bolivians' "obsessive signs of identity." Nestor Rodriguez discusses the tensions between Mexican and Central American immigrants, while Arturo Arias's piece on Central Americans moves brilliantly between the literary (and the cinematic), the historical, and the material. Four Brazilian chapters complete the work.

The editors hope that this introductory work will inspire others to continue these initial inquiries so as to construct a more complete understanding of the realities of Latin American migration into the United States.

In the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, a group of teenaged boys faces its last year in a private Catholic school, attended mostly by the children of upper-class families. Drunken nights, first experiences with drugs and sex, and continuous disciplinary problems are some of the rites of passage with which the students unknowingly try to assert their individuality. In the background, barely hidden beyond the classroom walls, lies the Bolivian reality of the 1980s: strikes, political instability, racism, social inequality, etc. Roby, the narrator, begins to notice all of this, and when a person close to him dies, the things he used to take for granted are suddenly gone; in his quest to solve the mysterious death, Roby will forge a path towards maturity. "En la ciudad boliviana de Cochabamba una clase de muchachos inicia su ultimo curso en un colegio privado y catolico al que asisten sobre todo hijos de familias acomodadas. Las borracheras, los primeros escarceos con las drogas y el sexo y las continuas faltas de disciplina son algunos de los ritos de paso con que los alumnos intentan, sin saberlo, afirmar su individualidad. Al fondo, ligeramente atenuada por los muros del colegio, aparece la realidad boliviana de los ochenta: huelgas, inestabilidad politica, racismo, desigualdades sociales, etcetera. De todo ello va dando cuenta Roby, el narrador de la novela, y cuando la muerte de una persona cercana le sorprende, las certidumbres en las que hasta entonces se apoyaba se tornan irreales; en su intento por resolver el enigma de la muerte, Roby buscara su camino hacia la madurez. "

The setting: Bolivia in the near future. Miguel "Turing" Saenz, a veteran cryptanalyst, is the most famous code-breaker in the employment of a secret government organization known as the Black Chamber. He is leading the pursuit of the Chamber's latest target: Kandinsky, a "cyberhacktivist" leader who is staging a war against both the government and the country's transnational corporations as part of an antiglobalization revolution. As Turing finds himself drawn into a web of murder, intrigue, and deception, he begins to suspect that his work is not as innocent as he once believed.

Para el nino de ocho anos Bunny Morison su madre es una presencia angelical sin la cual nada parece tener vida; para su hermano mayor, Robert, su madre es alguien a quien debe proteger, especialmente desde que la gripe ha comenzado a asolar su pequena ciudad del Medio Oeste norteamericano; para su padre, James Morison, su mujer Elizabeth es el centro de una vida que se desmoronaria sin ella. A traves de los ojos de estos tres personajes, Maxwell retrata a una familia y a la mujer sobre la que esta se sostiene. Recreando con maestria el ambiente de la clase media estadounidense de principios de los anos veinte, Vinieron como golondrinas muestra esas necesidades veladas de amor y comprension que nos acompanan durante toda nuestra vida. Con esta novela, en la que el autor se enfrenta por primera vez con el recuerdo de la muerte de su madre, Libros del Asteroide emprende la publicacion en castellano de la obra de William Maxwell, uno de los mas exquisitos autores norteamericanos del siglo XX, y el editor de escritores de la talla de Salinger, Updike o Cheever.

The Matter of Desire is the story of Pedro, a Bolivian-American political scientist who teaches at a university in upstate New York. Having become entangled in an erotically charged romance with Ashley, a beautiful red-headed graduate student, he returns to Bolivia to seek answers to his own life by investigating the mysteries of his father's past. Trapped between two cultures, Pedro ultimately finds himself in an existential dilemma of tragic dimensions. The Matter of Desire combines elements of the political thriller and the family mystery with a torrid illicit love affair and brilliantly elucidates the complex relationship between Latin America and the United States.