Memory of Fire; II. Faces and Masks Part Two of a Trilogy

Galeano, Eduardo, and Belfrage, Cedric (Translator)

ISBN 10: 0704325861 / ISBN 13: 9780704325869

Published by Quarter Books, London, 1987

About this Item

xvi, [2], 276, [8] pages. Sources. Illustrations. This was originally published in 1984 in Spain as Memoria del fuego, II. Los caras y las mascaras. Eduardo Hughes Galeano (3 September 1940 - 13 April 2015) was a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist considered, among other things, "global soccer's pre-eminent man of letters" and "a literary giant of the Latin American left". Galeano's best-known works are Las venas abiertas de América Latina (Open Veins of Latin America, 1971) and Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire Trilogy, 1982-6). "I'm a writer," the author once said of himself, "obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia." Author Isabel Allende called Open Veins of Latin America "a mixture of meticulous detail, political conviction, poetic flair, and good storytelling." In 1973, a military coup took power in Uruguay; Galeano was imprisoned and later was forced to flee, going into exile in Argentina where he founded the magazine Crisis. His 1971 book Open Veins of Latin America was banned by the right-wing military government, not only in Uruguay, but also in Chile and Argentina. In 1976 he married for the third time to Helena Villagra; however, in the same year, the Videla regime took power in Argentina in a bloody military coup and his name was added to the list of those condemned by the death squads. He fled again, this time to Spain, where he wrote his famous trilogy, Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire), described as "the most powerful literary indictment of colonialism in the Americas." A unique and epic history, Eduardo Galeano's Memory of Fire trilogy is an outstanding Latin American eye view of the making of the New World. From its first English language publication in 1985 it has been recognized as a classic of political engagement, original research, and literary form. The second volume of Eduardo Galeano's Memory of Fire trilogy, Faces and Masks is an astonishing Latin American-eye view of the New World in the making. Here is the tangled, cataclysmic history of our hemisphere from the 1700s up to the dawn of our present century, told through characters as resonant and compelling as Simon Bolivar, Toussaint L'Ouverture, and Billy the Kid. With its brilliant and imaginative blend of journalism, scholarship, and political passion, Faces and Masks is a panoramic interpretation of the Americas no work of history has previously imagined. Presumed First U.K. Edition, First printing. Seller Inventory # 85398

Bibliographic Details

Title: Memory of Fire; II. Faces and Masks Part Two...

Publisher: Quarter Books, London

Publication Date: 1987

Binding: Hardcover

Illustrator: C. Ruth Hope (Cover illustration)

Condition: Very good

Dust Jacket Condition: Very good

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

Genesis, the first volume in Eduardo Galeano’s Memory of Fire trilogy, is both a meditation on the clashes between the Old World and the New and, in the author’s words, an attempt to rescue the kidnapped memory of all America.” It is a fierce, impassioned, and kaleidoscopic historical experience that takes us from the creation myths of the Makiritare Indians of the Yucatan to Columbus’s first, joyous moments in the New World to the English capture of New York.

About the Author:

Eduardo Galeano‘s works, which have been translated into twenty-eight languages, include Memory of Fire (three volumes); Open Veins of Latin America; Soccer in Sun and Shadow; Days and Nights of Love and War; The Books of Embraces; Upside Down; and Mirrors. Born in Montevideo, he lived in exile in Argentina and Spain for years before returning to Uruguay. He was the recipient of the first Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom.