The Lesser Tragedy of Death

by Cristina García, Chris Abani (Editor)

Overview

From the National Book Award-nominated author of Dreaming in Cuban, "breathtakingly beautiful" poems about her troubled, self-destructive brother (The Austin Chronicle).
 
"[A] brave and moving tribute to a brother gone astray; with skill, unflinching honesty, and redemptive compassion, Cristina García tracks his marvelous, complex, and errant life…These poems are the beautiful, painful, astonishing result of a journey to hell and back in search of the brother she loves. With this first book of poems, García, one of our best novelists and storytellers, proves herself to be a talented poet as well."—Julia Alvarez, author of Saving the World
 
"Garcia's spare language lucidly invokes the brother's insistence on remaining a wreck and the speaker's helplessness to stop him."—The Adirondack Review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781936070794
Publisher:	Akashic Books
Publication date:	05/01/2010
Series:	Black Goat
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	97
File size:	700 KB

About the Author

Cristina García is the author of several novels-including Dreaming in Cuban and A Handbook to Luck-anthologies, and books for young readers. The Lesser Tragedy of Death is her first collection of poetry. García's work has been nominated for a National Book Award and translated into a dozen languages. Chris Abani, curator of Akashic's Black Goat poetry imprint, is a Nigerian poet and novelist and the author of Song for Night, The Virgin of Flames, Becoming Abigail, and GraceLand (a selection of the Today Show Book Club; winner of the 2005 PEN/Hemingway Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award).
Chris Abani is a Nigerian poet and novelist and the author of  The Virgin of Flames,  Becoming Abigail (a  New York Times Editor’s Choice), and  GraceLand (a selection of the  Today Show Book Club and winner of the 2005 PEN/Hemingway Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award). His other prizes include a PEN Freedom to Write Award, a Prince Claus Award, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. He lives and teaches in California.
 

Editorial Reviews

"The Lesser Tragedy of Death is a brave and moving tribute to a brother gone astray. With skill, unflinching honesty, and redemptive compassion, Cristina García tracks his marvelous, complex, and errant life . . . These poems are the beautiful, painful, astonishing result of a journey to hell and back in search of the brother she loves. With this first book of poems, Cristina García, one of our best novelists and storytellers, proves herself to be a talented poet as well."

Julia Alvarez

"Cristina García has the courage to look tragedy in the eye without flinching . . . In spare, luminous brushstrokes of language, García paints a series of portraits, from the boy who fell off a bicycle to the desperate mugger wrestling with an old woman over her purse. The cumulative effect is haunting, yet ultimately redemptive. There is power in García’s insistence that we see her brother as a human being, in all his complexity and mystery. You won’t forget these poems, or the story they tell.”
"

Martin Espada