GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
Latest editorial
Letters From Latin America
Review of fiction by Uruguayan writers Ida Vitale and Fernanda Trias
(L to R) Ida Vitale and Fernanda Trias
[(L to R) Pdx123/Creative Commons; Charco Press]
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
HENRY BELL is fascinated by the underlying curiosities and contradictions of one of the great poets of the Mediterranean
DAVID RENTON recommends a books that explores the ways in which disabled people are made to feel both of and not part of this world
BYOBU (Charco Press, £9.99) is a puzzling book by the Uruguayan poet Ida Vitale (b1923), a member of the acclaimed Generation of ’45 and winner of one the most important literary distinctions in the Spanish language, the Cervantes Prize.
It is Vitale’s first book of prose to be published in English and has been superbly translated by Sean Manning. It could be read as an experimental novel, an essayistic notebook or as a series of concatenated aphorisms.
But it is also a book of poetry written in prose, where the main character, the elusive Byobu, navigates a tantalising world woven through by many strange and playful stories.
Similar stories
LEO BOIX introduces a bold novel by Mapuche writer Daniela Catrileo, a raw memoir from Cuban-Russian author Anna Lidia Vega Serova, and powerful poetry by Mexican Juana Adcock
A novel by Argentinian Jorge Consiglio, a personal dictionary by Uruguayan Ida Vitale, and poetry by Mexican Homero Aridjis
Travelogue/reportage by Argentinean Maria Sonia Cristoff, and poetry by Peruvian Gaston Fernandez and Puerto Rican Cristina Perez Diaz
A pamphlet by British Latinx poet Patrick Romero McCafferty, poetry by Anglo-Argentinian Miguel Cullen, and a book of conjuring poems by Mexican Pedro Serrano