The Book of Denial

(Hardback)

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Description

A visually stunning horror story, ghost story, and work of graphic literary fiction,this book tells a raw and disturbing story rooted in our human history, with a devastating and unforgettable ending.

"How can you see letters without wanting to read themHow can you look at the sea without wanting to swim in it"

A boy(no more than nine)discovers that his father is writing a history of infanticide. Curiosity compels the boy, and so the sea in which hebegins to swim is that of his father's sloping handwriting.

Every night, the boy goes through a fragmentofthose pagespages that makehim feel suffocated and unable to sleepwhile every day he asks himself if children should know this horror story. But the boy's most pressing concernis something else: that history is catching-up with him and the other children, as his father's book progresses through the ages. Will the story reach thepresentday and find him

This book has many intentions, one of them being to ask why adults know so little about the moments in history where infants were exterminated, such as the time of the Roman Emperor Nero, the crusades against children, the massacre of the Holy Innocents, the Congress of Basel in 1437, Napoleon and the regiments of Marie Louise right up to the child trafficking and domestic violence of today.ChvezCastaedaand Magallanesfocus here so that others will care, and so that this history will resurface for transmission andremembrance. They also tell the story as a commentary on our own times, as a way of provoking us to think more honestly and deeply about childhood, children, and the respect we owe them in their difference from adults.

Written by genre-defying Mexican author Ricardo ChvezCastaeda,The Book of Denialis a dark and powerful story within a story, illustrated with a striking graphic sensibility by Alejandro Magallanes and translated by Lawrence Schimel.

This is the third book to appear under Unruly, an imprint of picture books for older readers, and will include a short note to readers about how it continues to build this experimental framework of visually complex, sophisticated picture books for teens and adults.

Author Bio

Ricardo Chvez Castaedawas born in Mexico City in 1961.He is one of the founding members of Mexico's Crack literary movement.ChvezCastaedahas won many prizes for his writing, which includes novels, short stories, essays, and children's books. He holds a BA in Psychology from the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, and a Master's Degree in Creative Writing from New Mexico State University. He currently teaches at Middlebury College.

Alejandro Magallaneswas born in Mexico City in 1971, and graduated from the National School of Plastic Arts ofUniversidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico. He is dedicated to playing and working with letters and images, andhe has created a style that has earned him important awards in Mexico and abroad. In addition to his extensive experience as a graphic designer and an illustrator, he is the author of books for children and young people.

Lawrence Schimel is a full-time author, writing in both Spanish and English, who has published over one hundred twenty books in a wide range of genres. He is also a prolific literary translator whose translations include La Bastarda (a Global Literature in Libraries Best Translated YA Honor Book, Lambda Literary Award finalist, and ALA Rainbow Book List selection) and Out in the Open (an Eisner Award finalist). He currently lives in Madrid.