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Book Title

Brickmakers

Subtitle
A Novel
Author 1
Selva Almada; Translated from the Spanish by Annie McDermott
Body
Oscar Tamai and Elvio Miranda, the patriarchs of two families of brickmakers, have for years nursed a mutual hatred, but their teenage sons, Pájaro and Ángelito, somehow fell in love. Brickmakers begins as Pájaro and Marciano, Ángelito’s older brother, lie dying in the mud at the base of a Ferris wheel. Inhabiting a dreamlike state between life and death, they recall the events that forced them to pay the price of their fathers’ petty feud.

The Tamai and Miranda f­amilies are caught, like the Capulets and the Montagues, in an almost mythic conflict, one that emerges from stubborn pride and intractable machismo. Like her heralded debut, The Wind That Lays Waste, Selva Almada’s fierce and tender second novel is an unforgettable portrayal of characters who initially seem to stand in opposition, but are ultimately revealed to be bound by their similarities.

Almada enlarges the tradition of some of the most distinctive prose stylists of our time. In Brickmakers, she furthers her extraordinary exploration of masculinity and the realities of working-class rural life. This is another exquisitely written and powerfully told story by a major international voice.

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List Price
$16.00
ISBN
ISBN
978-1-64445-069-7
Format
Format
Paperback
Publication Date
Publication Date
Subject
Subject
Pages
Pages
192
Trim Size
Trim Size
5.5 x 8.25
Keynote
A piercing and passionate novel, set in rural Argentina, about violence and masculinity

About the Author

Selva  Almada
Credit: Agustina Fernández
Selva Almada is the author of Brickmakers, Dead Girls, and The Wind That Lays Waste. She is considered one of the most potent literary voices in Argentina and Latin America.
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Annie McDermott is the translator of a dozen books from Spanish and Portuguese. She was awarded the Premio Valle Inclán and her translation of Brickmakers by Selva Almada was shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.

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Praise

  • “Almada's breathtaking multigenerational tragedy is a haunting, unforgettable examination of the lasting consequences of careless inhumanity.”—Terry Hong, Shelf Awareness, starred review
  • “With its surprises and lyricism, this is a successful riff on a classic Shakespearean tale.”—Publishers Weekly
     
  • “Almada is forceful in her depictions of sex, violence, and rage. I feel her prose in my body: a punch in the gut, the sharpness of glass. McDermott’s translation captures the bite of Almada’s sentences, which render both tenderness and violence with devastating clarity.”—Morgan Graham, Chicago Review of Books
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