Springtime in a Broken Mirror

Mario Benedetti, Penguin Books Ltd. An extraordinary story of love and exile, from one of the great masters of the Latin American novel Santiago is trapped. Taken political prisoner in Montevideo after a brutal military coup, he can do nothing but write letters to his family, and try to stay sane. Far away, his nine-year-old daughter Beatrice wonders at the marvels of 1970s Buenos Aires, but her grandpa and mother - Santiago's beautiful, careworn wife, Graciela - struggle to adjust to a life in exile. Graciela fights to retain the fiery passion that suffused her marriage, her politics, her whole life, as day by day Santiago edges closer to freedom. But Santiago's rakish, reckless best friend is a constant, brooding presence in the exiles' lives, and Graciela finds herself drawn irresistibly towards him. A lucid, heart-wrenching saga of a family torn apart by the forces of history, Springtime in a Broken Mirror tells with tenderness and fury of the indelible imprint politics leaves on individual lives. Generous and unflinching, it asks whether the broken bonds of family and history can ever truly be mended.Mario Benedetti (Author) Mario Orlando Hamlet Hardy Brenno Benedetti, known as Mario Benedetti, was a Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet. He is considered one of the most important 20th century Latin American writers, especially in the Spanish-speaking world. A revolutionary and a passionate romantic, Benedetti wrote of love, anger, political resistance and redemption, particularly during the period of his enforced exile from Uruguay, between 1973 and 1985. One of his last poems encapsulated his unquenchable creative urge- "When I'm buried / don't forget to put a Biro in my coffin." Nick Caistor (Translator) Nick Caistor was formerly the BBC's Latin America analyst. He has translated more than fifty works of fiction by authors from Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and many other Latin American countries, as well from Spain and France. He is also the author of biographies of Octavio Paz. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, and a cultural history of Mexico City.…