Patient
By Ana Marķa ShuaTranslated by David William Foster
ISBN: 0-935480-90-0
Price: $15.00
Pages: 144
Winner of the Concurso Internacional de Narrativa de Editorial Losada, Patient is an unforgettable story. Unfolding in territory unfamiliar to most, this tale of a young man who admits himself into a state mental facility is told by Shua with a keen sense of black humor and irony. In this lively, fast-paced narrative the young man soon realizes that leaving the hospital will not be as easy as he had thought. An ever-expanding web of bureaucracy meets him at every turn. Finding himself again and again enmeshed in the most absurd situations, he patiently suffers his fate. Through this satire of mental hospitals in Argentina, Shua brings us a metaphor for the human condition that reminds us of the joy and passion of the written word.
Ana Marķa Shua has worked as a novelist, copywriter, journalist and screen writer. She has published a total of nineteen books ranging from novels, to poetry, to short story collections and children's books. Well known in her native Argentina, Shua has received both national and international prizes. Her work has been translated into German, Portuguese, Italian and English.