Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was
Ursula K. Le Guin chose to translate this novel which was on the New York Times Summer Reading list and winner of the Prix Imaginales, Más Allá, Poblet and Sigfrido Radaelli awards.

This is the first of Argentinean writer Angélica Gorodischer's award-winning books to be translated into English. In eleven chapters, Kalpa Imperial's multiple storytellers relate the story of a fabled nameless empire which has risen and fallen innumerable times. Fairy tales, oral histories and political commentaries are all woven tapestry-style into Kalpa Imperial: beggars become emperors, democracies become dictatorships, and history becomes legends and stories.

But this is much more than a simple political allegory or fable. It is also a celebration of the power of storytelling. Gorodischer and translator Ursula K. Le Guin are a well-matched, sly and delightful team of magician-storytellers. Rarely have author and translator been such an effortless pairing. Kalpa Imperial is a powerful introduction to the writing of Angélica Gorodischer, a novel which will enthrall readers already familiar with the worlds of Le Guin.

1112019686
Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was
Ursula K. Le Guin chose to translate this novel which was on the New York Times Summer Reading list and winner of the Prix Imaginales, Más Allá, Poblet and Sigfrido Radaelli awards.

This is the first of Argentinean writer Angélica Gorodischer's award-winning books to be translated into English. In eleven chapters, Kalpa Imperial's multiple storytellers relate the story of a fabled nameless empire which has risen and fallen innumerable times. Fairy tales, oral histories and political commentaries are all woven tapestry-style into Kalpa Imperial: beggars become emperors, democracies become dictatorships, and history becomes legends and stories.

But this is much more than a simple political allegory or fable. It is also a celebration of the power of storytelling. Gorodischer and translator Ursula K. Le Guin are a well-matched, sly and delightful team of magician-storytellers. Rarely have author and translator been such an effortless pairing. Kalpa Imperial is a powerful introduction to the writing of Angélica Gorodischer, a novel which will enthrall readers already familiar with the worlds of Le Guin.

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Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was

Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was

Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was

Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was

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Overview

Ursula K. Le Guin chose to translate this novel which was on the New York Times Summer Reading list and winner of the Prix Imaginales, Más Allá, Poblet and Sigfrido Radaelli awards.

This is the first of Argentinean writer Angélica Gorodischer's award-winning books to be translated into English. In eleven chapters, Kalpa Imperial's multiple storytellers relate the story of a fabled nameless empire which has risen and fallen innumerable times. Fairy tales, oral histories and political commentaries are all woven tapestry-style into Kalpa Imperial: beggars become emperors, democracies become dictatorships, and history becomes legends and stories.

But this is much more than a simple political allegory or fable. It is also a celebration of the power of storytelling. Gorodischer and translator Ursula K. Le Guin are a well-matched, sly and delightful team of magician-storytellers. Rarely have author and translator been such an effortless pairing. Kalpa Imperial is a powerful introduction to the writing of Angélica Gorodischer, a novel which will enthrall readers already familiar with the worlds of Le Guin.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781931520058
Publisher: Small Beer Press
Publication date: 08/01/2003
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 246
Sales rank: 616,083
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Angélica Gorodischer (1928-2022) was born in Buenos Aires and lived in Rosario from 1936 on. She published many novels and short story collections including Kalpa Imperial, Mango Juice, and Trafalgar, as well as a memoir, History of My Mother. Her work has been translated into many languages and her translators include Ursula K. Le Guin and Alberto Manguel. With certain self-satisfaction she claimed to never have written plays or poems, not even at 16 when everybody writes poems, especially on unrequited love. She received two Fulbright awards as well as many literary awards around the world, including the Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Awards and a 2014 Konex Special Mention Award.

Table of Contents

Book One: The House of Power

Portrait of the Emperor
The Two Hands
The End of a Dynasty, or The Natural History of Ferrets
The Siege, Battle, and Victory of Selimmagud
Concerning the Unchecked Growth of Cities

Book Two: The Greatest Empire

Portrait of the Empress
And the Streets Deserted
The Pool
Basic Weapons
“Down There in the South”
The Old Incense Road

Reading Group Guide

  1. Kalpa Imperial is subtitled “the greatest empire that never was.” Why do you think the author did not set this novel in a recognizable place and time? What consequences does that have for the reader? What correspondences does this novel have with the history of your country?
  2. Using an “unreliable narrator” is a popular method of adding another angle to a story. (For example: think of the way the story told in the film The Usual Suspects unfolds at the end of the film compared to how it unfolded while you were watching it. Which part did you enjoy more? Why?) In Kalpa Imperial how many narrators are there? Are they trustworthy? What is the author saying about stories? Do you think the author’s voice can be told apart from the narrators’?
  3. Kalpa Imperial was written during the 1970s in Argentina, which at that time was ruled by a repressive and somewhat brutal military dictatorship. Do you think it is the writer’s place in the world to put themselves in danger by protesting against their government in print? In the USA, the freedom of expression is seen as an inalienable right, yet in the past two years individuals have been held by the government without access to their families or lawyers. Are there any sequences or characters in Kalpa Imperial that are similar to those in the present-day USA?
  4. What do you think is the individual’s responsibility when working for a repressive or fascist government?
  5. Recently an article in The New York Times noted that very few translations are published in the USA each year. Why do you think this is? Why are translations different from other novels? Which are better? How are they the same?
  6. If you were to describe Kalpa Imperial in twenty words, could you?
  7. Is Kalpa Imperial magic realism? Or perhaps it is a historical novel, an alternate history, or a fantasy? Where do you think these classifications come from and are they useful to you?
  8. South and Central American writers have sometimes found it difficult to publish books in the USA that are not magic realist. Why do readers have the expectation that their books will be magic realism?
  9. What makes a book magic realist? Can a writer from Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, or Oceania write magic realism?
  10. George Santayana said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Does this seem to any truth to you? Have you ever felt this way about your own life? How about for your government? How hard is it to recognize a mistake that is being repeated? What might stop a government from changing their behavior?

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