{"product_id":"family-album-stories-9780872868823","title":"Family Album: Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the Republic of Consciousness Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFamily Album\u003c\/i\u003e is Ecuadorian author Gabriela Alemán's rollicking follow-up to her acclaimed English-language debut, \u003ci\u003ePoso Wells\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlemán is known for her spirited and sardonic take on the fatefully interconnected--and often highly compromised--forces at work in present-day South America, and particularly in Ecuador. In this collection of eight hugely entertaining short stories, she teases tropes of hardboiled detective fiction, satire, and adventure narratives to recast the discussion of national identity. A muddy brew of pop-culture and pop-folklore yields intriguing, lesser-known episodes of contemporary Ecuadorian history, along with a rich cast of unforgettable characters whose intimate stories open up onto a vista of Ecuador's place on the world stage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom a pair of deep-sea divers using Robinson Crusoe's map of a shipwreck to locate sunken treasure in the Galápagos Archipelago, to a night with the husband of Ecuador's most infamous expat, Lorena Bobbitt, this series of cracked \"family portraits\" provides a cast of picaresque heroes and anti-heroes in stories that sneak up on a reader before they know what's happened: they've learned a great deal about a country whose more well known exports--soccer, coffee and cocoa--mask an intriguing national story that's ripe for the telling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eThe Millions \u003c\/i\u003eMost Anticipated Books for 2022!\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Ecuadorian writer Alemán's sparkling collection (after the novel \u003ci\u003ePoso Wells\u003c\/i\u003e) brims with humor and adventure.\"--\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Plays with tropes ranging from the Robinson Crusoe story to the classic betrayed-wife setup to wrestle with the impossible-to-decode oddness of human life, which old stories can only hide for so long.\"\u003cb\u003e--Lily Meyer, NPR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"It takes a rare and talented writer to create a cast of characters who each feel so unique, distinct, and whose stories unravel unexpectedly while also feeling inevitable, exactly right. Thoughtful and subversive, with \u003ci\u003eFamily Album\u003c\/i\u003e, Alemán has given us a gift.\"--\u003cb\u003eJean Kyoung Frazier\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003ePizza Girl\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Divers, adventurers, wrestlers, athletes: a diverse array of people come to light in these stories to insist again and again in challenging the weight of the written letter. Gabriela Alemán's stories inhabit the past to work through its possible versions. Her characters understand that History is a form of desire and the truth is not a house but a patina covering a place that has ceased to exist.\"--\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eYuri Herrera\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eA Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Gabriela Alemán's stories unravel a rich and intriguing universe in which nothing, and no one, is what it seems.\"\u003cb\u003e--\u003cb\u003ePilar Quintana\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Bitch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"These stories are like lizards lying on rocks in the sun. When you try to pick one up it darts away and disappears. Sometimes a tail comes off in your hand or the thing bites your fingers and drops of blood decorate the rock. Best read while listening to Julio Jaramillo sing 'Amor sin Esperanza' and 'Hojas Muertas.'\"\u003cb\u003e--\u003cb\u003eBarry Gifford\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eSailor \u0026amp; Lula: The Complete Novels\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003c\/b\u003eGabriela Alemán writes beautiful, sly, enigmatic stories originating in a rogues gallery of real life legends, including El Santo and John Wayne Bobbitt, as well as lesser known and invented souls, all of them struggling against the silent--or is it hostile?--backdrop of Ecuador's past and present. \u003ci\u003eFamily Album\u003c\/i\u003e is a mordantly funny and haunting collection.\"\u003cb\u003e--Zachary Lazar\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cb\u003eVengeance\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGabriela Alem?n\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She received\u003cbr\u003e a PhD at Tulane University and holds a Master's degree in Latin \u003cbr\u003eAmerican Literature from Universidad Andina Sim?n Bol?var. She currently\u003cbr\u003e resides in Quito, Ecuador. Her literary honors include a Guggenheim \u003cbr\u003eFellowship in 2006; member of Bogot? 39, a 2007 selection of the most \u003cbr\u003eimportant up-and-coming writers in Latin America in the post-Boom \u003cbr\u003egeneration; one of five finalists for the 2015 Premio Hispanoamericano \u003cbr\u003ede Cuento Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez (Colombia) for her short story collection \u003ci\u003eLa muerte silba un blues\u003c\/i\u003e; and winner of several prizes for critical essays on literature and film. Her novel \u003ci\u003ePoso Wells\u003c\/i\u003e was published in English translation by City Lights in 2018, followed up with the publication of her short story collection \u003ci\u003eFamily Album\u003c\/i\u003e, also published in English translation by City Lights in 2022. She lives in Quito, Ecuador.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eDick Cluster \u003c\/b\u003ehas translated four books for City Lights including \u003ci\u003eIn the Cold of the Malec?n and Other Stories\u003c\/i\u003e (2000) by Antonio Jos? Ponte, \u003ci\u003eFrigid Tales \u003c\/i\u003e(2002) by Pedro de Jesus, \u003ci\u003eA Corner of the World\u003c\/i\u003e (2014) by Mylene Fern?ndez-Pintado, and \u003ci\u003ePoso Wells \u003c\/i\u003e(2018) by Gabriela Alem?n. His own novels include \u003ci\u003eReturn to Sender\u003c\/i\u003e (1988), \u003ci\u003eRepulse Monkey\u003c\/i\u003e (1989), and \u003ci\u003eObligations of the Bone\u003c\/i\u003e (1992). Cluster lives in Oakland, California.\u003cb\u003eMary Ellen Fieweger \u003c\/b\u003ehas translated a number of books, including \u003ci\u003eWolves' Dream\u003c\/i\u003e by Abd?n Ubidia, \u003ci\u003eClio's Laws: On History and Language\u003c\/i\u003e by Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo, and two anthologies of short stories by Ecuadorian writers: \u003ci\u003eTen Stories from Ecuador\/Diez cuentistas ecuatorianos\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eContemporary Ecuadorian Short Stories\u003c\/i\u003e. Her own works include \u003ci\u003eEs un monstruo grande y pisa fuerte: la miner?a en el Ecuador y el mundo\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA History of Ecuador\/Una historia del Ecuador\u003c\/i\u003e. Fieweger lives in Ecuador. \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"City Lights Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50929829970194,"sku":"9780872868823","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_bf4358f6-f880-4ae0-b65b-2546a8e8febc.jpg?v=1739053479","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/family-album-stories-9780872868823","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}