{"product_id":"cousins-9781593767297","title":"Cousins","description":"\u003cb\u003eFour women from La Plata, Argentina, are forced to suffer through a series of ordeals thanks to their impoverished, dysfunctional family--in this darkly comic literary masterpiece from Aurora Venturini, never before translated into English\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt the age of eighty-five, Aurora Venturini stunned Argentine readers when her darkly funny and formally daring novel, \u003ci\u003eCousins\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eLas primas\u003c\/i\u003e), won \u003ci\u003ePágina\/12'\u003c\/i\u003es New Novel Award. She had already written more than forty books, but it was only then, in 2007, that she was widely recognized as a paradigm-shifting voice in Spanish-language literature. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eVenturini never stopped writing in her ninety-two years, and produced an oeuvre that is mischievous and stylish, vital and mysterious, and completely original. She lived a life immersed in the literature and culture of the twentieth century: her first award was given to her in person by Jorge Luis Borges; she was friends and colleagues with Eva Perón; and when she lived in exile in Paris, she socialized with a sparkling milieu of writers and philosophers, including Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eCousins\u003c\/i\u003e, widely regarded as Venturini's masterpiece, is the story of four women from an impoverished, dysfunctional family in La Plata, Argentina, who are forced to suffer through a series of ordeals, including illegal abortions, miscarriages, sexual abuse, disfigurement, and murder, narrated by a daughter whose success as a painter offers her a chance to achieve economic independence and help her family as best as she can. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNeighborhood mythologies, family, female sexuality, vengeance, and social mobility through art are explored and scrutinized in the unmistakable voice of Yuna--who stares wildly at the world in which she is compelled to live--a voice unique in contemporary literature whose unconventional style can be candid, brutal, sharp, and utterly breathtaking. With the translation of \u003ci\u003eCousins\u003c\/i\u003e into several languages for the first time, Aurora Venturini is now being discovered internationally and championed as a major voice in Latin American literature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAURORA VENTURINI\u003c\/b\u003e was born in 1921 in La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She worked as a psychologist and Rorschach test specialist at the Institute of the Child's Psychology and Re-education, where she befriended Eva Perón. In 1948, Jorge Luis Borges awarded her the Premio Iniciación for her book El Solitario. Persecuted for her political ideas, she had to go into exile in Paris, where she interacted with personalities of French existentialism and Violette Leduc in particular. She wrote more than thirty books. In 2007, she received the Página\/12 New Novel Award for Cousins. She died in 2015, in Buenos Aires, at the age of ninety-four. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eKIT MAUDE\u003c\/b\u003e is a literary translator based in Buenos Aires. He has translated dozens of writers from Spain and Latin America for a wide variety of publishers, publications and institutions and writes reviews and literary criticism for publications in Argentina, the USA and the UK.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Soft Skull","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50631459078418,"sku":"9781593767297","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_cc4e849e-8bc6-427f-bc9a-dff81597f4a7.jpg?v=1732773323","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/cousins-9781593767297","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}