Edwards, Jorge

Persona non grata : a memoir of disenchantment with the Cuban Revolution by Jorge Edwards ( Book )
86 editions published between 1973 and 2008 in 6 languages and held by 1,071 libraries worldwide
In 1970 Jorge Edwards was sent by Chilean President Allende as his country's first envoy to break the diplomatic blockade that had sealed off Cuba for over a decade. His arrival coincided with the turning point of the Revolution, when Castro began to repress the very intellectuals he had once courted. A gifted writer, a diplomat, a socialist, an outsider, Edwards has a unique perspective on this crucial moment in history, which has determined Cuba's fate. As Jose Donoso has written, "Persona Non Grata reveals the essence of Castro's Cuba and Allende's Chile and offers a different view of what it means to be Latin American." In Kafkaesque detail, Edwards records the four explosive months he spent in Havana trying to open a Chilean embassy and his disenchantment with the Revolution. His stay culminated in the arrest of his friend Heberto Padilla - the first imprisonment of a well-known writer by the regime - for giving Edwards a "negative view of the Revolution." In a menacing midnight political debate with Edwards immediately after Padilla's arrest, Castro argued that in the new phase of the Revolution, the bourgeois writers would no longer have "anything to do in Cuba." Castro accused Edwards of "conduct hostile to the Revolution" and declared him "persona non grata." In this haunting memoir that reads like a thriller, Edwards brilliantly portrays the inner workings of the dictatorship. He recounts how the ubiquitous secret police and their fondness for listening devices hidden in lamps, mirrors, and air conditioners brought Edwards, Padilla, and Laurita Allende (the president's sister) close to nervous breakdowns. Throughout Edwards gives surreal tales of Castro's madness. With biting irony, he describes a comic tour of a model dairy, where Castro, Edwards, and the guests tasted milk as if it were vintage wine, with Castro insisting that "We are going to achieve a Camembert better than France's," despite the rationing of milk and cheese throughout the island. Edwards explains in the introduction that he wrote this memoir to preserve and protect the two essential things that dictatorships always manipulate: language and historical memory. As Hans Magnus Enzensberger wrote, "At a time when most intellectuals, from Sartre to Susan Sontag, were still bemused by Castro's charm, [Jorge Edwards] simply told the truth. It is never too late for the truth, especially when it is told with Edwards's wit and intelligence." A stunning portrait of Castro's Cuba, Persona Non Grata is a classic on the nature of all dictatorships.

Los convidados de piedra by Jorge Edwards ( Book )
16 editions published between 1978 and 2001 in Spanish and Undetermined and held by 400 libraries worldwide

El peso de la noche by Jorge Edwards ( Book )
46 editions published between 1964 and 2003 in 3 languages and held by 357 libraries worldwide

Adios, poeta by Jorge Edwards ( Book )
23 editions published between 1990 and 2004 in Spanish and Portuguese and held by 315 libraries worldwide

Las máscaras by Jorge Edwards ( Book )
23 editions published between 1967 and 2000 in Spanish and Undetermined and held by 305 libraries worldwide

El inútil de la familia by Jorge Edwards ( Book )
26 editions published between 2004 and 2009 in Spanish and French and held by 298 libraries worldwide
Cuando Jorge Edwards comenzó a escribir, en un mundo que estaba muy lejos de destinarlo a la literatura, se encontró con un pariente cercano que nadie nombraba, un fantasma, un marginal, un maldito de su época, Joaquín Edwards Bello. Joaquín había obtenido el Premio Nacional de Literatura en 1943, pero su vida accidentada, aventurera, de jugador empedernido, su inconformismo, su abierta y en aquellos años escandalosa rebeldía social, ya lo habían convertido en una leyenda viviente. El sobrino siguió con fascinación, con asombro, la historia del primo hermano de su padre. El tío Joaquín, había conocido los palacetes de América y Europa, pero pronto descendió al fondo de la noche: a las callejuelas y tabernas de la mala muerte, a los prostíbulos, a los garitos clandestinos. Vivió una vida accidentada entre Madrid, París, Valparaíso y Santiago.--Desde la descripcioân de la editorial.

El museo de cera by Jorge Edwards ( Book )
31 editions published between 1981 and 2001 in Spanish and French and held by 276 libraries worldwide

El origen del mundo by Jorge Edwards ( Book )
13 editions published between 1996 and 2005 in Spanish and German and held by 260 libraries worldwide
"Siguiendo una línea narrativa que lo ha alejado de la representación realista de sus primeras novelas, el autor recupera el tema del triángulo amoroso dándole un giro inesperado que pone en juicio los mecanismos racionales con que algunos personajes juzgan el comportamiento humano"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

La mujer imaginaria by Jorge Edwards ( Book )
11 editions published between 1985 and 1988 in Spanish and Portuguese and held by 260 libraries worldwide
En kvinde beslutter sig ved sin 60 års fødselsdag til at sige farvel til det liv, hun hidtil har haft. Hun prøver at finde tilbage til det stadium i hendes liv, hvor hun opgav sit sande jeg. Det bliver også en vandring gennem Chiles dramatiske historie.

El anfitrión by Jorge Edwards ( Book )
20 editions published between 1987 and 2001 in Spanish and held by 245 libraries worldwide