Thirteen Heavens

by Mark Fishman

Overview

"Two friends two friends, how close could they get without being one man … one in love with a ghost, the other … longed for the son who'd more than likely already become a ghost.” Rubén Arenal, nicknamed Rocket by his close friends and family, and Ernesto Cisneros are longtime friends, as close as brothers, living in Mexico's northern state of Chihuahua.  Rubén is a potter who lives alone in his studio apartment. Ernesto is married to Guadalupe and they have one son, Coyuco, who is training to be a teacher. Out of these bald facts spins magic. Rubén falls in love with an eerily lifelike mannequin in a shop window, widely rumored to be more flesh and bone than mere artifice and modelled on a local beauty nicknamed La Pascualita, who died young many decades ago. Rubén trails after her ghost while Ernesto leaves their hometown to go in search of his son, kidnapped and disappeared by the police while out on a student protest with forty-two of his comrades from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771835282
Publisher:	Guernica Editions, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/01/2020
Series:	World Prose , #26
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1954, Mark Fishman has lived and worked in Paris since 1995. His short stories have appeared in a number of literary magazines such as the Chicago Review, Carolina Quarterly, Black Warrior Review, Mississippi Review, Frank (Paris), and The Literary Review. He was the English-language editor of The Purple Journal (Paris) and Les Cahiers Purple (Lisbon). He is the author of two previous novels: The Magic Dogs of San Vicente and No. 22 Pleasure City.

Editorial Reviews

Thirteen Heavens is more than a novel. It’s an epic poem of Mexico’s history, culture, traditions and religious faith and mostly the silent dignity and pride of the people. It is a beautiful tormenting story about love, loss and friendship. It is amazing how so much information and knowledge is given to the reader without neglecting the story.

Lavinia Mighali

Set in 2014, Thirteen Heavens is a hypnotizing tale of corrupt politics, brutal violence, and all-too-human drama. For all of its quiet brutality, the narrative is infused with an entrancing, dreamlike mix of Mexican folklore, popular song and poetry. At the novel's very heart lies the porosity of the boundary between this life and the next. It is a book like no other and, once begun, it is very hard to put down. Once put down, it is very hard to forget. — Richard Aronowitz, author of An American Decade and Life Lessons

From the Publisher