Chronicle of San Gabriel
By Peruvian Author Julio Ramón RibeyroTranslated by John Penuel
ISBN: 1-891270-19-2
Price: $15.00
Pages: 148
Chronicle of San Gabriel explores an isolated rural community from the perspective of a city dweller. After his mother’s death, Lucho, a teenager, is sent from Lima to stay with his relatives at the San Gabriel hacienda; there he witnesses the provincial customs of an agrarian community. He is fascinated by his manipulative young cousin with whom he develops a tortuous relationship. The novel is a testimony to the decay of the large Peruvian landed estate. The honesty and freshness of the narrative will come as no surprise to readers familiar with Ribeyro’s stories. For those who have yet to discover the work of this great writer, Chronicle of San Gabriel will make an excellent introduction.
"Written in elegant and ironic prose,
Chronicle of San Gabriel recreates a feudal society with
great subtlety and humor. A magnificent novel."
--Mario Vargas Llosa
"An outstanding translation ....Boulevard of Heroes offers an insightful voyage into the soul of Latin America's radical, old-time activists....the novel resonates with echoes of Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch, Miguel Angel Asturias's El Señor Presidente, and Demetrio Aguilera-Malta's Babelandia: forgotten military heroes have insatiable love affairs in a universe without logic....[t]his Colombian writer is without question a powerful storyteller...."
--World Literature Today
"The most interesting points here are not about
politics but about life in exile."
--Publishers Weekly