La familia interrumpida

by Eloy Urroz

Cuando el poeta sevillano Luis Cernuda huye de España en febrero de 1938, no imagina que esa será la última vez que pise su tierra. Exiliado en Gran Bretaña, y gracias a un ex amante, encuentra un deprimente trabajo que empeora su desesperación y su amargura: ayudar a los 3,800 niños vascos asilados que han llegado a tierra inglesa tras la caída del cerco de Bilbao a manos de tropas franquistas. Setenta años después, el joven cineasta mexicano Luis Salerno Insausti, radicado en Nueva York, recibe un misterioso correo electrónico que viene a trastocar su vida y a unirla indisolublemente a la del gran poeta español.

Genres: Spanish Literature, Fiction

217 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

Eloy Urroz is a Mexican writer and Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature at The Citadel in South Carolina. Though born in New York, Urroz grew up in Mexico City and is of Mexican nationality. He is one of the founding members of the Crack Movement, along with such writers as Ignacio Padilla and Jorge Volpi. Urroz has written eight novels, four books on literary criticism, four books of poetry, three political reportages and dozens of essays, articles, and reviews on Latin American and Peninsular Culture and Literature. Some of his novels have been translated into English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and German. In the United States, his novels are published by Dalkey Archive Press.

Reviews

[Libros Prohibidos · Rating 3 out of 5]

No me ha dejado clavado en la silla, porque el conflicto no alcanza en ningún momento la intensidad que promete al principio, pero sí es una novela disfrutable, escrita por un narrador sólido y que no resulta vacua si se entiende como un artefacto para la reflexión sobre los asuntos que le preocupan al a su autor. Reseña completa: http://www.libros-prohibidos.com/eloy...

[Patrick Hanlon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've come to enjoy the books I've discovered from Dalkey Archives. This is another and it was a treat to discover Urroz and, via him Luis Cernuda.

[Saúl Girón · Rating 1 out of 5]

Me costó una eternidad este libro. Quizás por leerlo en paralelo con otros menos “interesantes” -para mí-, o quizás por algo más prosaico, mala historia!

[Brenda Valdez · Rating 4 out of 5]

leyendo esto me dieron ganas de ser un buen padre (soy una mujer de 20 años btw)

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short translated novels can either pass right by you or hit you like a ton of bricks. The trajectory this one was on, straight for my midsection, was clear from the moment I saw it on a display on the second floor of the Longmont library. It has a simple, elegant design, and a structure that is clear and yet intricate. It follows two men: Luis Salerno, a contemporary man living in New York, self-exiled from Mexico, as he sorts through his memories and ideologies; and poet Luis Cernuda, who has fled Spain in 1938. Both men are ensnared by the romantic loves in their presents and pasts; Luis Salerno also lives in a network of family ties that are sometimes tight, sometimes cut. The narratives of both men center around fatherhood born of mourning. It is unclear whether redemption is available to both men, but in the end, it is offered to Salerno, and this feels to a reader like compensation enough.

[Liliana Méndez · Rating 5 out of 5]

No tengo palabras para describir esta obra, este libro que narra dos historias que terminan entrelazadas de una manera sorprendente. Son dos historias, dos Luis, dos muertes, pero un gran libro que provoca sentimientos y aun después de terminar de leerlo tuve que guardar un tiempo de silencio pues me dejo con un mar de sentimientos. Espero leer algo más de este gran escritor muy pronto.