Fallen Man, by Fernando Aramburu (Tusquets)
Richi lost joy, also lost his work and, although he does not know it, he also lost Carlota, his wife: she has a relationship with another. For a few days, Richi intends to take his life. He said it at the table, also on the street and at the bar. Now he is testing knots with a rope, but it is not easy. “That doesn’t know how to do the poor,” Carlota tells a friend. “The other day I asked him, with the best intentions, if he needed money and began to cry,” he continues. “Well, it makes it difficult for you!” Says the friend. “Difficult? I can’t stand it.” Richi is the protagonist of one of the stories of Man downFernando Aramburu’s new book. Author of Patriathe Spanish writer signs a great volume of stories, where death, old age, emotions and surprises cross in every corner, often crossed with absurd and humor. The book brings together 14 stories, including that of a daughter who takes care of her parents and escapes daily to photograph squirrels in the park, or that of a couple of older people who live disinfecting, obsessively, every time they enter and leave home. Also the story of a father who drives down the street and surprisingly a child is crossed: in a second he must decide if he dodges the school and, incidentally, kills an old man who walks along the sidewalk, or runs the little one and saves the old man. Children, he thinks, “contribute hope and energy,” while the old man can even die. While not all stories exhibit the same level, the set is a large collection of stories of one of the best current writers.
Tessels, Memoirs and Assumptions, by Denise Levertov (UDP)
As a child, in Orsha, Denise Levertov’s father used to see a street vendor with a large sack. He saw it in the streets of his city and sometimes also in Vitpsk, where his uncles and grandparents lived. For him it was evident what the seller had in the bag: it was full of wings that allowed people to fly like birds. In Orsha another child was born, ten years younger, who became a genius of painting: Marc Chagall. Although they did not meet among them, Chagall painted the same man flying in one of his paintings. “Only after my father’s death in 1954 I discovered that Chagall had recognized, like him, the magic of that bag,” she writes. Born in Essex in 1923, by Madre Wesa and Russian father of Jewish origin, turned into a Anglican pastor, the poet recreates short scenes, observations and biographical moments in these memoirs. From his childhood near London, his nurse days during World War II to his time as an activist against the Vietnam War, the book is composed of delicate fragments, written with a contained and suggestive prose, which form a mosaic of luminous flashes. In these pages, the author also reflects on love and memory, literature and lost books.
Popoi and his human Tomás, by Dannaé Álvarez and Daniela Viviani (Planet)
Tomás is six years old and lives with Jessica, his mother, and his little brother Diego. One day he finds a chorrion chick on the street, which pia helpless. “Mom, can I keep him?” Asks Tomás. “Do you want to be her dad?” And given his affirmative response, the mother underlines her main challenge: “You have to be Res-Pon-Sa-200.” In addition, he asks for a commitment: to free the little bird when he learns to fly. In this way, Tomás begins his learning and his relationship with the chick, which Popoi baptizes. Learn how to take care of it and feed it, and in that process, it becomes aware of the energy and love that your mother dedicates to take care of her brother and. Popoi grows and one day learns to fly. And Tomás must fulfill his commitment. The writer Daniela Viviana and the illustrator Dannaé Álvarez are the co -author of this tender and cheerful comic, which harmonizes a simple learning history and affection with warm and cheerful drawings that Japanese comics and animations remember.
