Premio Jan de Novela 2011
Premio de Novela Elena Poniatowska 2012
En Cancin de Tumba, el siglo XXI nos respira en la nuca con su aliento ms fiero. Novela descarnada, pero sabia y potica en su crudeza, se mueve en la lnea de El desbarrancadero, de Fernando Vallejo. Creo que no hay en castellano nadie tan genialmente contemporneo como Julin Herbert. -Laura Restrepo Cancin de tumba narra la azarosa vida de Guadalupe Chvez, prostituta y madre del narrador que, a lo largo del libro, se encamina hacia la muerte, vctima de leucemia. La enfermedad de Guadalupe impone al protagonista un ejercicio autobiogrfico que lo llevar a sumergirse en su infancia y su juventud, al tiempo que indaga en la compleja relacin con su madre, con sus propios hijos y con su pas, Mxico, asolado por la corrupcin, la violencia y la destruccin. La novela de Julin Herbert saca esqueletos del armario, crea una voz narrativa genuina y febril, dibuja un Mxico desalmado poblado por personajes que ya forman parte de lo mejor de la literatura en espaol. Cancin de tumba es poesa, msica y una lectura inagotable. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION The life of Guadalupe Chvez, a prostitute suffering from leukemia, narrated with plenty of love and harshness by her writer son.
Jaen Novel Prize 2011.
Elena Poniatowska Novel Prize 2012.
"In The Grave Song, the twenty-first century breathes down our necks with its most ferocious breath. A stark novel, though wise and poetic in its own crudeness, moving along the lines of The Edge of the Abyss, by Fernando Vallejo. I do not think there is anyone as brilliantly contemporary in Spanish, as Julin Herbert." --Laura Restrepo
The Grave Song tells the story of Guadalupe Chvez' eventful life, a prostitute and the narrator's mother, heading throughout the book towards her own demise from leukemia. Guadalupe's disease presses an autobiographical exercise upon the protagonist, immersing him in his childhood and youth, at the time he delves into the complex relationship he has with his mother, his own children, and his country, Mexico, devastated by corruption, violence, and destruction. Julin Herbert's novel takes the skeletons out of the closet, creates a genuine and feverish narrative voice, and portrays a soulless Mexico, inhabited by characters that are already part of the best literature in the Spanish language. The Grave Song is poetry, music, and an inexhaustible read.
Premio Jan de Novela 2011
Premio de Novela Elena Poniatowska 2012
En Cancin de Tumba, el siglo XXI nos respira en la nuca con su aliento ms fiero. Novela descarnada, pero sabia y potica en su crudeza, se mueve en la lnea de El desbarrancadero, de Fernando Vallejo. Creo que no hay en castellano nadie tan genialmente contemporneo como Julin Herbert. -Laura Restrepo Cancin de tumba narra la azarosa vida de Guadalupe Chvez, prostituta y madre del narrador que, a lo largo del libro, se encamina hacia la muerte, vctima de leucemia. La enfermedad de Guadalupe impone al protagonista un ejercicio autobiogrfico que lo llevar a sumergirse en su infancia y su juventud, al tiempo que indaga en la compleja relacin con su madre, con sus propios hijos y con su pas, Mxico, asolado por la corrupcin, la violencia y la destruccin. La novela de Julin Herbert saca esqueletos del armario, crea una voz narrativa genuina y febril, dibuja un Mxico desalmado poblado por personajes que ya forman parte de lo mejor de la literatura en espaol. Cancin de tumba es poesa, msica y una lectura inagotable. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION The life of Guadalupe Chvez, a prostitute suffering from leukemia, narrated with plenty of love and harshness by her writer son.
Jaen Novel Prize 2011.
Elena Poniatowska Novel Prize 2012.
"In The Grave Song, the twenty-first century breathes down our necks with its most ferocious breath. A stark novel, though wise and poetic in its own crudeness, moving along the lines of The Edge of the Abyss, by Fernando Vallejo. I do not think there is anyone as brilliantly contemporary in Spanish, as Julin Herbert." --Laura Restrepo
The Grave Song tells the story of Guadalupe Chvez' eventful life, a prostitute and the narrator's mother, heading throughout the book towards her own demise from leukemia. Guadalupe's disease presses an autobiographical exercise upon the protagonist, immersing him in his childhood and youth, at the time he delves into the complex relationship he has with his mother, his own children, and his country, Mexico, devastated by corruption, violence, and destruction. Julin Herbert's novel takes the skeletons out of the closet, creates a genuine and feverish narrative voice, and portrays a soulless Mexico, inhabited by characters that are already part of the best literature in the Spanish language. The Grave Song is poetry, music, and an inexhaustible read.
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