Latin American Literature

Carmen and Grace have been inseparable since they were little girls—more like sisters than cousins, survivors of a childhood marked by neglect and addiction and a system that never valued them. For too long, all they had was each other. That is, until Doña Durka swept into their lives and changed everything, taking Grace into her home, providing stability and support, and playing an outsize role in Carmen’s upbringing too.

Published in 1791, Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man defended the French Revolution’s values of freedom, equality, and brotherhood. He argued that a government based on justice ought to support mankind’s civil rights relating to security and protection, as well as the natural rights to life, liberty, and freedom of conscience. He also proposed plans for universal education, pensions, poverty relief, and social welfare in this classic work that was widely read across the West.

The Lifted Veil is a novella by George Eliot, first published in 1859. Quite unlike the realistic fiction for which Eliot is best known, The Lifted Veil explores themes of extrasensory perception, the essence of physical life, possible life after death, and the power of fate. This book has been carefully adapted into modern English to allow for easy listening. Enjoy!

Paloma has been watching the Grand Vespertilio Show her entire life. Grand, America’s most beloved horror host showcases classic, low-budget and cult horror movies with a flourish, wearing his black tuxedo and hat, but Paloma has noticed something strange about Grand, stranger than his dark make-up and Gothic television set.

When he arrives in Cuba at the close of the eighteenth century, Victor Hugues, a merchant sailor from Marseille, brings with him not only the idealism of the French Revolution but also its ambition and bloodlust. Landing at the Havana doorstep of a trio of wealthy, eccentric Creole orphans, he sweeps them across the Caribbean Sea to Guadeloupe, whose enslaved Africans he frees only then to exploit them in his fight against the British for colonial sovereignty. What ensues in Alejo Carpentier’s magical realist masterpiece is an explosive clash between the New World and the Old World.

The Colombian film director, Sergio Cabrera, is in Barcelona for a retrospective of his work. It's a hard time for him: his father, famous actor Fausto Cabrera, has just died; his marriage is in crisis; and his home country has rejected peace agreements that might have ended more than fifty years of war. In the course of a few intense days, as his films are on exhibit, Sergio recalls the events that marked his family's unusual and dramatic lives: especially his father's, his sister Marianella's and his own.

Following the events of Lobizona, Manu and her friends cross the mystical border into Kerana - a cursed realm in Argentina - searching for allies and a hiding place. As they chase down leads about the Coven - a mythical resistance manada that might not even exist - the Cazadores chase down leads about Manu, setting up traps to capture and arrest her.

Mitología mexicana para niños es una colección de historias que nos cuenta cómo entendían el universo los antiguos habitantes de nuestro territorio. En esta obra encontrarás los leyendas de la creación del mundo, los cinco soles, cómo se crearon los diferentes dioses y sus historias, el significado de algunos símbolos y la organización de sus sociedades con base en calendarios muy precisos, que respetaban las fases lunares y las estaciones del año.

George Eliot’s last, most controversial novel opens as the spoiled Gwendolen Harleth, poised at a roulette table about to throw away a small fortune, captivates Daniel Deronda. As their lives become intertwined, they are also transformed by suffering, misfortune, revelations and Daniel’s fascination with the Jewish singer Mirah. Daniel Deronda shocked Victorian readers with its portrayal of the Jewish experience in British society, and remains a moving and epic portrayal of human passions.

Cuando Sara, de 17 años, se entera de la muerte de su familia, acepta su papel de ganarse la vida cruzando la frontera a los Estados Unidos ilegalmente para vivir con un tío al que no conoce. Necesita ganar el suficiente dinero para pagar al coyote y ayudar a su tía Elena sobrevivir. Su viaje al norte está lleno de aventura y un nuevo amor.

The magic of the impish Puck transports little Una and Dan to centuries past, where they witness the making of myth and the making of history, the heritage of England.

À l'heure où le régime castriste s'essouffle, "Don Fuego" chante toujours dans les cabarets de La Havane. Jadis, sa voix magnifique électrisait les foules. Aujourd'hui, les temps ont changé et le roi de la rumba doit céder la place. Livré à lui-même, il rencontre Mayensi, une jeune fille "rousse et belle comme une flamme ", dont il tombe éperdument amoureux. Mais le mystère qui entoure cette beauté fascinante menace leur improbable idylle.

Baja California, 1979. Viridiana spends her days watching the dead sharks piled beside the seashore, as the fishermen pull their nets. There is nothing else to do. Yet her head is filled with dreams of Hollywood films, of romance, of a future beyond the drab town where her only option is to marry and have children. Three wealthy American tourists arrive for the summer, and Viridiana is magnetized. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape. When one of them dies, Viridiana lies to protect her friends. Soon enough, someone’s asking questions....

Los Angeles, 1986. A group of right-wing Christians has put an initiative on the November ballot to allow health officials to force people with HIV into quarantine camps - and it looks like it’s going to pass. Rios, now living in LA, agrees to be counsel for a group of young activists who call themselves QUEER. QUEER claims to be committed to peaceful civil disobedience. But when one of its members is implicated in the bombing of an evangelical church that kills its pastor, Rios finds himself with a client suddenly facing the death penalty.

Linda, an anxious and restless American, has moved to São Paulo, with her husband, Dennis, who has accepted a yearlong professorship. As Dennis submerges himself in his work, Linda finds herself unmoored and adrift, feeling increasingly disassociated from her own body. Linda’s unwavering and skilled maid, Marta, has more claim to Linda’s home than Linda can fathom. Marta, who is struggling to make sense of complicated history and its racial tensions, is exasperated by Linda’s instability.

« Il était absurde d’attendre une année entière pour soumettre au hasard d’une nuit le restant de ses jours. » Une fois par an, le 16 août, Ana Magdalena Bach prend un ferry pour passer une nuit sur l’île où est enterrée sa mère. Indifférente à la splendeur des Caraïbes, elle se contente de déposer un bouquet de glaïeuls sur sa tombe avant de retrouver son mari.

La collection audio Crème de Crime rassemble des polars emblématiques de la littérature policière. Qui sont les 4 justiciers, ces mystérieux personnages châtiant les criminels impunis et réparant les injustices à travers le monde ? La question agite toute la presse anglaise car les 4 individus menacent d'exécuter le ministre des affaires étrangères s'il n'abandonne pas le projet de loi qu'il prépare. Les 4 justiciers, dotés d'une habilité et d'une audace inouïes, multiplient les avertissements publics.

A collection of humorous, sexy, and highly neurotic tales about parenting, long-term relationships, systemic and interpersonal racism, and class conflict from the author of The Town of Babylon, The People Who Report More Stress deftly and poignantly expresses the frustration of knowing the problems and solutions to our society’s inequities but being unable to do anything about them.

La vida nunca ha sido fácil para Óscar Wao, un dominicano dulce, obeso y desastroso que vive con su madre y su hermana disfuncional en un gueto de Nueva Jersey. Óscar sueña con convertirse en un J. R. R. Tolkien dominicano y, por encima de todo, sueña con encontrar el amor de su vida. Pero puede que Óscar nunca alcance sus metas debido a una extraña maldición que ha estado en su familia por generaciones, enviando a los Wao a prisión, predisponiéndolos a accidentes trágicos y, ante todo, al desamor.

Charlie still likes to think of himself as a normal kid. But what's normal about being a demon-slaying preteen with an encyclopedic knowledge of Hispanic and Latino mythology who can partially manifest nearly any animal trait found in nature? Well, not much. But, Charlie believes he can get used to this new "normal," because being able to sprout wings or morph fins is pretty cool. But there is a downside: It means having to constantly watch his back for La Mano Peluda's sinister schemes. And when the leader of La Liga is kidnapped, Charlie's sure they're at it again.