The Forbidden Stories Of Marta Veneranda

(Hardback)

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Description

STORIES OF THE MAD, THE BAD, THE CURIOUS AND THE INEXPLICABLE IN HUMAN BEHAVIOUR A daisy chain of eight interlinking stories that read like a novel, this dazzling collection from Cuban-born writer Sonia Rivera-Valdes introduces a circle of loosely connected Latin immigrants in New York City who drift in and out of each other's bizarre lives. Mayte is a Cuban journalist who is married but tormented by her love for her female cousin. Rodolfo is Mayte's co-worker with an uncontrollable lust for his odorous fat neighbour. Rodolfo's friend is a gay man oddly obsessed with straight porn, and Marta is an abused housewife who finds liberation from her philandering husband with self-help books that advise her to poison him to death. Beneath the wry and often black humour of this collection is a serious examination of the coming together of Anglo and Latino cultures.

Reviews

"That which is not sanctioned by society...are the pivotal points in Rivera-Valdes's narratives. The author has turned the tables on propriety." - Zaida Capota, Institute of Literature and Linguistics, Havana"

Author Bio

Sonia Rivera-Valdes was born in Cuba and first lived in New York City in 1966. Currently professor of Latin American Literature at York College, she has had short fiction included in a number of anthologies including Cubana and Dream with No Name. She was also only the second Cuban residing outside the island to receive the Casa de las Americas Literature Award.