And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic

by Ilan Stavans (editor)

In this rich, eye-opening, and uplifting anthology, dozens of esteemed writers, poets, artists, and translators from more than thirty countries send literary dispatches from life during the pandemic. A portion of proceeds benefit booksellers in need.

As our world is transformed by the coronavirus pandemic, writers offer a powerful antidote to the fearful confines of isolation: a window onto lives and corners of the world beyond our own. In Mauritius, a journalist contends with denialism and mourns the last days of summer, lost to the lockdown. In Paris, a writer struggles to protect his young son from fear. In Chile, protesters who prevailed against tear gas and rubber bullets are now halted by a virus. In Queens, after thirteen-hour shifts in the ER, a doctor dons running shoes and makes the long jog home.

And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again takes its title from the last line of Dante's Inferno, when the poet and his guide emerge from hell to once again behold the beauty of the heavens. In that spirit, the stories, essays, poems, and artwork in this collection--from beloved authors including Jhumpa Lahiri, Mario Vargas Llosa, Eavan Boland, Daniel Alarc�n, Jon Lee Anderson, Claire Messud, Ariel Dorfman, and many more--detail the harrowing experiences of life in the pandemic, while pointing toward a less isolated future. Together they comprise a profound global portrait of the defining moment of our time, and send a clarion call for solidarity across borders.

Our literary culture depends on bookstores--and those irreplaceable sources of conversation and community, of inspiration and solace, have been decimated by the lockdown. Net proceeds from And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again will go to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which helps the passionate booksellers we readers depend upon.

--Lily Meyer "The Atlantic"

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Poetry, Short Stories, Anthologies

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 25, 2020

About the author

Ilan Stavans is the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. An award-winning writer and public television host, his books include Growing Up Latino and Spanglish. A native of Mexico City, he lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Jypsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Restless Books for a complimentary copy! I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

I have become a big fan of anthologies of all kinds over the last year. And We Came Outside And Saw The Stars Again ranks among my all time favorites. I am drawn to collections featuring stories about pandemics, dystopian futures, speculative fiction, apocalyptic events and such. This book is just amazing! With great author diversity and a wide range of experiences, this collection will be hard to beat.

I recognize myself in many of the given scenarios, while others are completely foreign to me. That, however, is the reason why I like this book so much. I get the opportunity to experience the spectrum of human nature during such unprecedented times. These snapshots of life are gritty, starkly beautiful, haunting and sharply honest. Each one offers something unique.

I intend to share this book with future generations, hoping we all take some fundamental principles and truths about life from these pages. I encourage you to pick up a copy of this remarkable collection today.

[Doni · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised at how few of these pieces stuck with me. A med intern who encountered a middle-aged man choosing not to be intubated at the hospital so others would survive. A poet who wrote of measuring his life in unread books. Despite being from across the world, the others seemed to be in a similar state of privilege as me, writing about the tedium of lockdown (what tedium when the world is crashing around us every day?) These writers, for the most part, are not the people whose lives are on the line. Though that is an unfair judgment since it is unknown whose lives are on the line. Maybe I'm just too immersed in the current reality and reading about it didn't provide me enough distance to reflect on it meaningfully. It was worth the read, but I am still searching for other accounts that will hit closer to home.

[Marci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories, essays, and poems about or inspired by the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The contributions are from all over the world. Most are well-written and some are downright absorbing. The collection gave me the human story that my news and online sources were not giving me.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quotable:

Applause is a post-religious form of prayer.

It is being said that 2020 will be the first year in which there is a negative population growth: old people are dying in hordes; immigration has decreased in dramatic ways; and the young, for an assortment of reasons, are postponing having babies. Not having a vigorous old generation will deprive society of the wisdom that comes from the elders. While impalpable to many, this will create a sense of uncertainty.

I have been having lucid dreams in which I see people from my childhood I have not thought about for decades. I wonder if in the months of the plague dreams have an altogether different grammar. Do they speak to us differently? Are they deeper? Do we unconsciously acknowledge that our dreams are the only way we can actually travel now, other than while watching a Netflix program?

How to react to COVID-19 depends on which TV channel to tune into.

Every day is the same since we were confined to our homes. The daily routine is both different and, at the same time, ferociously monotonous. Waking up, making breakfast, eating with relish or not – sometimes regardless of the cook’s skill – connecting to Zoom for work, or to take a class, or keep in contact with family. Lunchtime arrives, dinnertime arrives, and the intervening hours arrive and are filled with whatever is available: yoga, jumping rope, walking the dog, watching videos on YouTube, dying of weariness. This is what medieval monks called acedia, the Noonday or Meridian Demon. It is the heavy weight of boredom.

Jorge Ibarguengoitis, the great humorist, asks where people learn to think so poorly. In school? In church? From Fox News? Listening to their president? From their families? Down the bar? This is the key question I ask myself in these ill-fated times, locked down, killing time while I watch the news, read the world’s press online, and I am astounded by human idiocy. Where do people learn to think so poorly?

We have recorded the sound
the wind makes on Mars, but we cannot
listen to one another.

No matter how busy things get – the baby, online classes, writing, Zoom calls, family online meetings – I have the feeling that the days are empty.

When people ask how I’m doing, I say, I’m fine. And it’s true, but it’s also a lie, what I tell myself in order to get through the day. I an doing exactly what humans evolved to do; to make a life amid whatever hand you’re dealt.

[Mrs C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a balanced collection of works from various artists and writers from all over the world. Those that stick out for me were from some favorite writers like Yoss, Claire Messud, and Grace Talusan. There are poems, descriptive journal-like entries, abstract thoughts, photographs, and illustrations that all center around what covid-19 represent. Some are political, historical, and personal making this work more like a scrapbook of sorts to look back to when this pandemic is over.

Thanks to the publisher for letting me read an advance copy.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very of-the-moment but a narrow in the scope of the prospective. It represents a very high brow/ high society voice through much of the book. It sets out to be wholly representative and while the stories represent different cultures from all over the world, the social status represented is heterogeneous. I could definitely see this as an artifact to read in a college course when people learn about the pandemic decades from now, but it's not a comprehensive account of the human experience.

[Ex Libris Meis]

The next words were written by Mario Vargas Llosa on March 15,2020:

“With time, the coronavirus will be no more than an old news story that people barely remember.

What will never pass is our fear of death, of the afterlife, which is at the heart of a collective dread like the fear of plague.

Mankind must respond to them and acknowledge the fleeting nature of existence.

It is difficult for us to accept that all of life’s beauty, all the adventures life has to offer, belong ultimately to death, and that at any moment it may all come to an end.

It is difficult to acknowledge, too, that if death did not exist, life would be infinitely boring, without adventure and mystery, a cacophonous repetition of the most banal and unpleasant experiences ad nauseam.

It’s thank to death that we have love, desire, fantasy, art, science, books, and culture — all the things that make life unpredictable, exciting, and bearable.

Reason explains all this, but the turmoil that lies within us stops us from accepting it.

Fear of the plague is, quite simply, fear of death, which accompanies us through our lives like a shadow.”

http://www.exlibrismeis.com/en/2021/0...

Publisher: RESTLESS BOOKS Brooklyn, New York 2020

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again compiled by Restless Books Publisher, Ilan Stavans was a very interesting collection of essays based on the world quarantine due to Covid-19.

Each International Author created a unique view of what was happening on their part of the Earth.

I really found the personal stories the most effective. Didn't love the Political stories which tended to be extremely off-putting to those who don't believe the same viewpoint which is how I read things when reviewing for a wide general audience.

I think my favorite was the introspection of the author, Lynne Tillman. It struck me, like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, she tried to make each day interesting, however, after a while, it's all tedium day after day, unless when looking out windows or wandering the streets of New York.

Each essay was either creative writing- Poetry, photography, etc; personal experiences or stories that held your interest that related to their feelings and were expressed in a way that took you away from the tension, extreme stress, fear, or boredom.

I think this book is worthy of being read if you need to commiserate and want great writing.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology of writings from the early days of COVID is wonderful. Stavans has gathered articles, essays, poems, and short stories from writers around the world. It is enlightening to read what people in other countries were doing and feeling in spring 2020. We hear from people who worked in emergency rooms, who lost loved ones to the virus, who felt imprisoned in tight lockdown, and who enjoyed the solitude and simplicity of their quarantined lives. There is fear, confusion, and anger at governments that have not responded well. These pieces, many translated from other languages, are beautifully written. They capture a moment when COVID was new, when there were no treatments or vaccines, and no one knew for sure what to do, and they remind us that the United States is not the center of the universe. I highly recommend this book.

[Bethany Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

At once devastating and hopeful, this book was a heart-rending gift to my soul as we began 2021. It felt true, so deeply true. And terrifying, to realize even more deeply how significant the global impact of this pandemic has been. And yet it was validating to read, less lonely, to hear truth and reflections, interpretations and wonder from such an array of voices and writing styles in the midst of such isolation and disconnect. We are not on the other side of this pandemic yet, though there are shimmers of hope at times. This book offered companionship akin to chaplaincy...it offered no answers or promises or solutions, but it was honest and kept me company on this difficult, even awful, journey.

[Sophia Brauner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I needed this collection. At times sad and bleak. But also inventive, calming, and full of solidarity and hope. For me, reading other people's experiences with the pandemic this year has been an almost therapeutic way of handling the events of 2020. It's the idea of sharing sorrow but also sharing hope and solidarity. If you just want to forget about this virus for a while, this book is not for you. If you, however, want to learn from others, empathize with strangers, read stories, poems, and letters that all strive to make sense of what's going on in this world, then this collection is for you.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this at the end of 2022, when the pandemic is “over”, makes this collection both poignant and outdated. We’ve learned so much about COVID since then, some of our early fears and precautions now seem overblown and slightly ridiculous. On the other hand, more people died than predicted and there doesn’t seem to be a true end in sight. For me, these essays are a reminder of how essential the arts became when we were all isolated and normal work routines halted.

[Cinnamon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the various perspectives from around the world, outside of my covid bubble. Obviously some stories were more moving or meaningful to me than others, and overall it's a little depressing when we're still dealing with the pandemic months later, but it was interesting and definitely got me thinking.

[Dee]

I was intrigued by the premise of this, but after I started reading, it felt too jarring to read a book about the pandemic while we are still in the midst of it. Maybe I'll pick this up again someday when covid-19 is over (whatever that means).

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Lanie Tankard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's my review in ON THE SEAWALL:

https://www.ronslate.com/on-and-we-ca...

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

#TooSoon
Here’s a tip - wait a bit after the ‘Rona before reading this. We need some distance.

[Pri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful anthology.

[Matt Tooley · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's okay. It gets a little tedious. Some of the pieces are interesting...but they're a bit repetitive and get dull after a while.

[Bobbie N · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collecion of essays, reflections, and poems from dozens of writers from around the world about the COVID-19 pandemic.

As in most collections of this sort, I liked some of the entries better than others, based on if the story resonated with me or how well it was written.

[tala]

just read
- a return to the middle ages
- obstacle

[Meggin Dail · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great reminder of what we lost, what we wanted, what was good and how we got through and are getting through. ( though I'm still lost regarding "The Birthday. ")

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this about a year after most of the submissions were written- it was like a time capsule. Part of it was very difficult to read- I didn't to remember the confusion of a year ago. And yet- it was moving and cathartic. I will keep this in my library. It also encouraged me to write down my thoughts as I have them.