A Talisman in the Darkness
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Orozco’s stories portray, in impressionistic, and dreamy language, a childhood spent in a small town on the Argentine pampa.
“This is a gem of a collection of Olga Orozco stories, beautifully rendered into English. This wise selection of stories reveals Orozco's lyrical as well as mysterious prose. The translators provide an excellent introduction to Orozco's haunting and illuminating saga of childhood on the Argentine pampa.”
— Marjorie Agosin, Wellesley College
“A Talisman in the Darkness presents, for the first time in English, the spell-binding short stories of Olga Orozco (1920-1999), the Argentine surrealist poet, astrologer, and student of Gnosticism. The stories reconstruct scenes from a childhood on the pampas while drawing the reader into an intensely paradoxical universe of mysterious signs and omens, alternately enchanting and unnerving. At the core of the narratives is a girl child who, though episodes of unsought illumination, encounters for the first time aspects of both the visible and the hidden worlds.”
—Naomi Lindstrom
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Culled from two previous collections written 28 years apart, the first English translation of Argentine poet Orozco's short fiction pulses with surreal imagery in stories seen through the innocent eyes of L a, the author's autobiographical stand-in. The offstage death of L a's brother in the early story "And Still the Wheel," haunts L a throughout the book, fueling her sense of wonder and fear of the unknown. Because most stories lack a traditional arc and are given to long patches of dreamlike imagery, they can feel monotonous, but when there's a definite structure, the power of Orozco's prose is apparent. In "St. John's Day Bonfire," L a, her sisters Laura, Mar a de las Nieves, and friends from the neighborhood make wishes while leaping a bonfire. When L a's wish which is shyly romantic is in danger of being exposed, her sister, normally contrary and aloof, rescues her with a clever, unexpected gesture. Orozco captures L a's timorousness, Laura's abiding love for her, and the heated, na ve passion of a children's ritual with vivid and compassionate prose. Though a poetic strain overwhelms the collection as a whole, this is a valuable introduction to a writer whose work deserves a wider audience.
