Divine Punishment - Hardcover

Sergio Ramirez; Nick Caistor; Translator

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1620540142 ISBN 13: 9781620540145

Publisher: McPherson & Company, 2015

Synopsis

Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor with Hebe Powell.
Upon its original publication, Carlos Fuentes declared Divine Punishment to be the quintessential Central American novel. In this, the greatest work of a storied literary career, Sergio Ramírez transforms the most celebrated criminal trial in Nicaraguan history the alleged murders in 1933 of two high society women and his employer by a social-climbing bon vivant named Oliverio Castańeda into an examination of the entire Nicaraguan society at the brink of the first Somosa dictatorship. Passion, money, sex, gossip, political intrigue, medical malpractice and judicial corruption all merge into a novel that reads like a courtroom drama wrapped in yellow journalism disguised as historical fiction posing as a scandal of the first order.

About this title

About the Author

Sergio Ramírez was born in Masatepe, Nicaragua in 1942. His first book was published in 1963; the following year he earned a law degree at the University of Nicaragua. After a lengthy voluntary exile in Costa Rica and Germany during which he continued to write works of fiction and nonfiction he became active as the leader of the Group of Twelve, consisting of intellectuals, businessmen and priests united against the Somoza regime. With the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution in 1979, he became part of the Junta of the Government of National Reconstruction, where he presided over the National Council of Education. He was elected vice-president of Nicaragua in 1984, an office he held until 1990. He continued to serve as the leader of the Sandinista block in the National Assembly until 1995, when he founded the Movement for Sandinista Renovation (MRS) because of his differences with Daniel Ortega. In 1996 he retired from politics.
Sergio Ramírez is the author of more than thirty books, only a handful of which have been translated into English. He has received Spain's Dashiel Hammet Award, France's Laure Bataillon Award, Cuba's José María Arguedas Latinamerican Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Alfaguara International Novel Award. A Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of France, and a doctor honoris causa of Blaise Pascal University (France), he is also recipient of the International Prize for Human Rights awarded by the Bruno Kreisky Foundation, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Government of Germany. He held the Robert Kennedy Professorship in Latin American Studies at Harvard University in 2009. His recent books include Catallina y Catalina (2001), Sombras nada mas (2002), Mil y una muertes (2004), and El Reino Animal.
In 2014 he was awarded the second annual Carlos Fuentes Prize by the Mexican government.

From the Back Cover

Upon its original publication, Carlos Fuentes declared Divine Punishment to be the quintessential Central American novel. In this, the greatest work of a storied literary career, Sergio Ram rez transforms the most celebrated criminal trial in Nicaraguan history the alleged murders in 1933 of two high society women and his employer by a Casanova named Oliverio Casta eda into an examination of the entire Nicaraguan society at the brink of the first Somosa dictatorship. Passion, money, sex, gossip, political intrigue, medical malpractice and judicial corruption all merge into a novel that reads like a courtroom drama wrapped in yellow journalism disguised as historical fiction fronting for a political scandal of the first order.

Edition details

• Publisher: McPherson & Company
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1620540142
• ISBN 13: 9781620540145
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 516