The Science of Departures

by Adalber Salas Hernández, Robin Myers (Translation)

Poetry. Latinx Studies. THE SCIENCE OF DEPARTURES is a book of goodbyes. Each poem in Adalber Salas Hernández's collection speaks to a different kind of death, estrangement, illness, dispossession, decomposition, banishment, stories forgetfully or oppressively re-written over time, the painful discrepancy between language and experience. Some address historical figures or speak in their voices. Others explore the body (living, dead, and in transit): where it goes, the borders it traverses, what it's forced to leave behind. Informed both by classical literature and contemporary Venezuelan politics, by twentieth-century history and high school biology class, by Twitter and the Old Testament, by the cynicism of bureaucracy and the wonder of parenthood, these poems register loss, condemn subjugation, and marvel at the music humans can make when we try to speak of it all.

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Hardcover

First published March 14, 2018

About the author

Adalber Salas Hernández is a Venezuelan poet, essayist and translator. He is the author of several books of poems, most recently Salvoconducto (2015, winner of the XXXVI Arcipreste de Hita Prize), Río en blanco (2016), and mínimos (2016). He has published translations of Marguerite Duras, Antonin Artaud, Charles Wright, and Mário de Andrade, among others. He is currently working on his PhD degree in Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature at New York University.

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Added to my list of favorite living poets.

[Loiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating. So very personal but so universal. Immigration, repression, the haunting of the past translating back into our physical present. Metaphysical and historic in the sense of motif- cotidian and full of gruesome and realistic bodily descriptions. Style and editing in great, perfectly coherent sense. Loved it!

[Diana Thalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vuelos que separan, mitos resignificados, viajes hacia el interior o en los que llegamos de sueños. El libro es un compendio de adioses a veces irónicos, nostálgicos o violentos.