Home reading service / Fabio Morábito ; translated from the Spanish by Curtis Bauer.
Material type:
TextLanguage: English Original language: Spanish Publisher: New York : Other Press, [2021]Description: 223 pages ; 21 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781635420722
- 1635420725
- Lector a domicilio. English
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | Fiction | MORABITO FABIO | Available | 33111010749998 | ||||
|
Adult Book
|
Northport Library | Fiction | MORABITO FABIO | Available | 33111009863503 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
After an accident - or 'the misfortune,' as his cancer-ridden father's caretaker, Celeste, calls it - Eduardo is sentenced to a year of community service reading to the elderly and disabled. Stripped of his driver's license and feeling impotent as he nears thirty-five, he leads a dull, lonely life, chatting occasionally with the waitresses of a local restaurant or walking the streets of Cuernavaca. Once a quiet town known for its lush gardens and swimming pools, the 'City of Eternal Spring' is now plagued by robberies, kidnappings, and the other myriad forms of violence bred by drug trafficking. At first, Eduardo seems unable to connect. He movingly reads the words of Dostoyevsky, Henry James, Daphne du Maurier, and more, but doesn't truly understand them. His eccentric listeners - including two brothers, one mute, who moves his lips while the other acts as ventriloquist; deaf parents raising children they don't know are hearing; and a beautiful, wheelchair-bound mezzo soprano - sense his detachment. Then Eduardo comes across a poem his father had copied by the Mexican poet Isabel Fraire, and it affects him as no literature has before. Through these fascinating characters, like the practical, quick-witted Celeste, who intuitively grasps poetry even though she never learned to read, Fabio Morabito shows how art can help us rediscover meaning in a corrupt, unequal society.
Originally published in Spanish as El lector a domicilio in 2018 by Sexto Piso, Mexico City.
"In the English-language debut novel of one of Mexico's most poignant writers, a man guilty of a minor offense finds himself caught between the tedium of his temperate city and the growing menace of crime there. After an accident-or "the misfortune," as his cancer-ridden father's caretaker calls it-Eduardo is sentenced to a year of community service reading to the elderly and infirm. Stripped of his driver's license and feeling impotent as he nears thirty-five, he performs his duties without comprehending what he reads, and walks the city of Cuernavaca. Once a quiet town known for its lush gardens and swimming pools, the "City of Eternal Spring" is now plagued by robberies, kidnappings, and the other myriad forms of violence bred by drug trafficking. As he enters into the homes and lives of his listeners, Eduardo becomes entangled in a series of sinister events that will place him unexpectedly at the center of this complex community of people who occupy so much of his time."-- Provided by publisher.