Mazurka for Two Dead Men: A Novel - Hardcover

Cela, Camilo José

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 081121222X ISBN 13: 9780811212229

Publisher: New Directions, 1992

Synopsis

At the end of the Spanish Civil War, Tanis Gamuzo sets out to avenge the death of his brother, who was abducted and killed during the war, in a work set in a backward rural community, by the 1989 Nobel Prize winner.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Mazurka for Two Dead Men represents a culmination of the 1989 Nobel Prize winner Camilo Jose Cela's literary art. The novel was originally published in Spain in 1983 and is now presented in a fine translation by Patricia Haugaard. In 1936, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, "Lionheart" Gamuzo is abducted and killed, an event recalled repeatedly by the widowed Adega, one of the several narrative voices. In 1939, when the war ends, Tanis Gamuzo avenges his brother. For both events, and for them only, the blind accordion player Gaudencio plays the same mazurka. Set in a backward rural community in Galicia (the author's home territory), Cela's creation is in many ways like a contrapuntal musical composition built with varying themes and moods. In alternately melancholy, humorous, lyrical, or coarse tones he portrays a reign of fools.

About the Author

Camilo José Cela, winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in 1916 in Galicia in a family with aristocratic roots. His father was a Spaniard, his mother of English birth but also with some Italian blood. His medical studies were interrupted due to the civil war, after which he returned to Madrid to study law. In 1942, he published the novel that made his name, La familia de Pascual Duarte. Since then he has devoted himself entirely to literature. He lived on Mallorca for decades, starting in 1954. In 1956 and until 1979, he published the magazine, Papeles de Son Armadans in which, during the Franco era, he could give space to the young opposition. He died in 2001.

Edition details

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 081121222X
• ISBN 13: 9780811212229
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312