{"product_id":"bomarzo-9781681379418","title":"Bomarzo","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"[\u003ci\u003eBomarzo\u003c\/i\u003e] is a novel that will make any reader happy.... [A] novel to be read aloud, with the whole family gathered around.\" --Roberto Bolaño \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA lavishly written gothic historical fantasy novel that centers around Pier Francesco Orsini, the tortured duke of Bomarzo and creator of the Italian town's famously bizarre \"Garden of the Monsters.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePier Francesco Orsini, duke of Bomarzo, created a park of monsters in which the nightmares of the Renaissance are preserved, set in stone yet still writhingly alive. In \u003ci\u003eBomarzo\u003c\/i\u003e, Manuel Mujica Lainez--one of the great Argentine novelists of the twentieth century--re-creates the dark and legendary duke as a brilliant memoirist recalling the trials and travails of his sixteenth-century life from a modern point of view (Freudian psychoanalysis and \u003ci\u003eLolita \u003c\/i\u003eboth put in an appearance) while ensconced in a city that sounds suspiciously like Mujica Lainez's own Buenos Aires. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eBomarzo \u003c\/i\u003eis a historical novel in the grand manner, a first-person portrait of an aristocratic hunchback bullied by his family and determined to prove a villain (a portrait so convincing that Edmund Wilson assumed it to be fact). It is also, of course, a commentary on such historical fictions. But above all it's an immersive story told in a sumptuous style--a bit as if Proust were rewriting one of Poe's Italian tales--as Gregory Rabassa's translation (out of print for many years) conveys beautifully.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eManuel Mujica Láinez\u003c\/b\u003e (1910-1984) was an Argentine novelist, translator, and critic. He is the author of a series of novels known as the Buenos Aires cycle, which portray the city through a combination of historical veracity and fantasy. He shared with Julio Cortázar the 1964 John F. Kennedy medal and received the Legion of Honor from the French government in 1982. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eGregory Rabassa\u003c\/b\u003e (1922-2016) was a noted translator of Spanish and Portugeuse literature. He introduced the work of several acclaimed international writers to English-speaking audiences, among them Julio Cortázar, Clarice Lispector, Machado de Assis, Mario Vargas Llosa, and perhaps most famously, Gabriel García Márquez, beginning with the author's classic \u003ci\u003eOne Hundred Years of Solitude\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eÁlvaro Enrigue \u003c\/b\u003eis a Mexican novelist and essayist. His 2013 novel \u003ci\u003eSudden Death\u003c\/i\u003e was awarded the Herralde Prize, the Elena Poniatowska International Novel Award, and the Barcelona Prize for Fiction. His work has appeared in outlets such as \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, n+1, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e. He teaches at Hofstra University and lives in New York City.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"New York Review of Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51552870433042,"sku":"9781681379418","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f8940573-729a-4ec3-ae12-bd75106c055c.jpg?v=1754909603","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/bomarzo-9781681379418","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}