Name: The Obscene Bird of Night: Unabridged, Centennial Edition
Price: 17.66 GBP
Availability: InStock
Author: Donoso, José ; Mades, Leonard ; McDowell, Megan
ISBN: 9780811232227

portada The Obscene Bird of Night: Unabridged, Centennial Edition

Type

Physical Book

Author

José Donoso

Publisher

New Directions Publishing Corporation

Language

English

Pages

464

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

20.3 x 13.6 x 3.3 cm

Weight

0.44 kg.

ISBN13

9780811232227

Synopsis "The Obscene Bird of Night: Unabridged, Centennial Edition"

Deep in a maze of musty, forgotten hallways, Mudito rummages through piles of old newspapers. The mute caretaker of the crumbling former abbey, he is hounded by a coven of ancient witches who are bent on transforming him, bit by bit, into the terrifying imbunche: a twisted monster with all of its orifices sewn up, buried alive in its own body. Once, Mudito walked upright and spoke clearly; once he was the personal assistant to one of Chile's most powerful politicians, Jerónimo de Azcoitía. Once, he ruled over a palace of monsters, built to shield Jeronimo's deformed son from any concept of beauty. Once, he plotted with the wise woman Peta Ponce to bed Inés, Jerónimo's wife. Mudito was Humberto, Jerónimo was strong, Inés was beautiful--once upon a time... Narrated in voices that shift and multiply, The Obscene Bird of Night frets the seams between master and slave, rich and poor, reality and nightmares, man and woman, self and other in a maniacal inquiry into the horrifying transformations that power can wreak on identity.Now, star translator Megan McDowell has revised and updated the classic translation, restoring nearly twenty pages of previously untranslated text that was mysteriously cut from the 1972 edition. Newly complete, with missing motifs restored, plots deepened, and characters more richly shaded, Donoso's pajarito (little bird), as he called it, returns to print to celebrate the centennial of its author's birth in full plumage, as brilliant as it is bizarre.

José Donoso

(Author)

View Author's Page

José Donoso nació en Santiago, Chile, en 1924. Estudió en la Universidad de Chile y luego en Princeton, Estados Unidos. Entre 1967 y 1981 vivió en España, donde escribió algunas de sus novelas más importantes y se consolidó como una figura central del boom latinoamericano. Entre otras distinciones, obtuvo el Premio Nacional de Literatura en Chile, el Premio de la Crítica en España, el Premio Mondello en Italia y el Premio Roger Caillois en Francia.
En 1995 fue condecorado con la Gran Cruz del Mérito Civil, otorgada por el Consejo de Ministros de España. Tras su regreso a Chile en 1981, dirigió por varios años un taller literario que jugó un rol fundamental en la gestación de la «nueva narrativa chilena». José Donoso murió en Santiago de Chile, en diciembre de 1996.

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