Monastery

by Eduardo Halfon, Lisa Dillman (Translator), Daniel Hahn (Translator)

Overview

The nomadic odyssey of Eduardo Halfon continues as he searches for clues about his identity across Central America and Europe, New York and Jerusalem

In Monastery, Eduardo Halfon’s eponymous wanderer travels from Guatemalan cities, villages, coffee plantations, and border towns to a private jazz concert in Harlem, a former German U-Boat base on the French Breton coast, and Israel, where he escapes from his sister’s Orthodox Jewish wedding into an erotic adventure with the enigmatic Tamara. His passing encounters are unforgettable; his relationships, problematic. At once a world citizen and a writer who mistrusts the power of language, he is pursued by history’s ghosts and unanswerable questions. He is a cartographer of identity on a compelling journey to an uncertain destination. As he draws and redraws his boundaries, he confronts us with the limitations of our own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781934137826
Publisher:	Bellevue Literary Press
Publication date:	10/14/2014
Edition description:	Translatio
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Eduardo Halfon is the author of The Polish Boxer, Monastery, Mourning, Canción, and Tarantula. He is the recipient of the Guatemalan National Prize in Literature, Roger Caillois Prize, José María de Pereda Prize for the Short Novel, International Latino Book Award, Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and Berman Literature Prize, among other honors. A citizen of Guatemala and Spain, Halfon was born in Guatemala City, attended school in Florida and North Carolina, and has lived in Nebraska, Spain, Paris, and Berlin.

Editorial Reviews

Select Praise for Monastery

Best Translated Book Award Longlist

“A moving, reflective, and humbly resounding work of fiction. . . . As an ambassador of both worldly wonder and sublime storytelling, Eduardo Halfon’s Monastery, despite its brevity, is truly a marvel.” —Best Translated Book Award Longlist citation

More Praise for Eduardo Halfon’s Fiction

“Halfon is a brilliant storyteller.” —Daniel Alarcón

“Halfon’s prose is as delicate, precise, and ineffable as precocious art, a lighthouse that illuminates everything.” —Francisco Goldman

“Elegant.” —Marie Claire

“Engrossing.” —NBC Latino

“Fantastic.” —NPR Alt.Latino

“Offer[s] surprise and revelation at every turn.” —Reader’s Digest

“Deeply accessible, deeply moving.” —Los Angeles Times

“[Halfon’s] books, which take on such dark subjects, are so enjoyable to read.” —New York Review of Books

“There is something Bolañoesque about Halfon’s fictions, the way art and violence conspire to distort mythologies both personal and national.” —New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

2014-10-09
With this sly, quietly penetrating account of life on the road—a quasi-fictional journey containing sharp reflections on his Jewish ancestry—gifted young Guatemalan writer Halfon picks up where he left off with his acclaimed The Polish Boxer (2012).The narrator declares himself a "retired" Jew who "can't imagine a prayer, any prayer, having a meaning more profound than a mother's good-night kiss." During a visit to Jerusalem to attend his rigidly observant sister's wedding, he feels nothing when he touches the Western Wall. But for all his coldness toward religion, and his claim that "every journey is meaningless," this descendent of Polish and Lebanese grandparents is inspired by his travels and moved by his far-flung encounters with people who radiate belief. They include a Harlem woman who hosts private jazz concerts in her apartment "as a way of surviving Sundays," having lost her son; self-sufficient coffee growers in Guatemala who believe the quality of their beans reflects their own inner values; and, in her own way, a flight attendant he runs into in Israel with whom he's had an oddly erotic encounter in the past. One of this author's special attributes is never forcing meaning on his experiences, letting us judge the mundane factor of certain moments. But he's also great at reversing our initial impressions of people and places. A stone-faced border guard who denies the narrator passage into Belize shows different colors in a barroom. In the end, Halfon says, "Everyone decides how to save themselves." We can only be happy he decided to become a writer. A rising star among Latin writers, Halfon is a lively traveling companion, even at his most pessimistic.

Kirkus Reviews