{"product_id":"ellis-island-9780811229548","title":"Ellis Island","description":"\u003cp\u003eGeorges Perec, employing lyrical prose meditations, lists, and inventories, conjures up the sixteen million people who, between 1890 to 1954, arrived as foreigners and stayed on to become Americans. Perec (who by the age of nine was an orphan: his father was killed by a German bullet, and his mother perished in Auschwitz) is wide-awake to the elements of chance in immigration and survival: \"To me Ellis Island is the ultimate place of exile. That is, the place where place is absent, the non-place, the nowhere. Ellis Island belongs to all those whom intolerance and poverty have driven and still drive from the land where they grew up.\" \u003cem\u003eEllis Island\u003c\/em\u003e is a slender Perec masterwork, unique among his many singular works.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe acclaimed poet and scholar Mónica de la Torre contributes an afterword that keeps Perec's writing front and center while situating \u003cem\u003eEllis Island\u003c\/em\u003e in the context of America's current fierce battles over immigration.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePerec, Georges:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - The many beautiful, complex books of the acclaimed French author \u003cstrong\u003eGeorges Perec\u003c\/strong\u003e (1936-1982) include \u003cem\u003eLife: A User's Manual\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eA Void\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eW: Or the Memory of Childhood\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThings: A Story of the Sixties\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eA Man Asleep\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003e53 Days.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMathews, Harry:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eHarry Mathews\u003c\/strong\u003e (1930-2017) was born in New York. A founding editor of the literary journal \u003cem\u003eLocus Solus\u003c\/em\u003e, he wrote novels, poetry, short fiction, essays, and translations from the French. His many books include \u003cem\u003eCigarettes\u003c\/em\u003e (1987), \u003cem\u003eThe Sinking of the Odradek Stadium\u003c\/em\u003e (1999), and \u003cem\u003eThe Human Country\u003c\/em\u003e (2002).\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ede la Torre, Mónica:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eMónica de la Torre's\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of \u003cem\u003eRepetition Nineteen\u003c\/em\u003e; she teaches at Brooklyn College.","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50371954639122,"sku":"9780811229548","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_41eeb2fc-44cc-4ad4-bc7f-f30cd22d757f.jpg?v=1728541962","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/ellis-island-9780811229548","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}