Santiago Amigorena’s Novel of the Shoah and Latin America Santiago Amigorena’s Novel of the Shoah and Latin America
In The Ghetto Within, the Argentine novelist considers the dark shadow that the Holocaust has cast not only on Europe but also on Latin America.
May 8, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
The Many Labyrinths of Alejandro Iñarritu’s Oscar-Nominated “Bardo” The Many Labyrinths of Alejandro Iñarritu’s Oscar-Nominated “Bardo”
Disjointed, unnerving, and divisive, Bardo challenges its viewers to make sense of it.
Mar 9, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
Olga Tokarczuk’s Panoramic Novel of Jewish Poland Olga Tokarczuk’s Panoramic Novel of Jewish Poland
A work defined by its narrative elasticity, The Books of Jacob tells the story of a false messiah not through his eyes but through the vibrant and now lost world around him.
Oct 4, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
The Literary Games of Fernando Pessoa The Literary Games of Fernando Pessoa
Did Pessoa truly control his alter egos? Or did his creations, in many ways, control him?
Jul 14, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
The Dark History of Colonia Dignidad The Dark History of Colonia Dignidad
The Netflix series A Sinister Sect examines not only the history of a German community led by a Nazi in Chile but also the relationship between Latin American governments and ...
Mar 24, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
Claudio Lomnitz and the Vertigo of Translation Claudio Lomnitz and the Vertigo of Translation
In his generations-spanning new book, the anthropologist tracks the story of Jewish life in Latin America through the travails of one family.
Feb 23, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
To Julia de Burgos To Julia de Burgos
Already people murmur I’m your enemy since they say that in verse I give the world to me. They lie, Julia de Burgos. They lie, Julia de Burgos. The one rising in my verses isn’t yo…
Apr 10, 2021 / no-paywall / Julia de Burgos and Ilan Stavans
The Misuses of Allegory The Misuses of Allegory
Is José Saramago an anti-Semite?
May 15, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
Familia Faces Familia Faces
Genealogy rules Latino literature tyrannically.
Jan 23, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
Buffoonery of the Mundane Buffoonery of the Mundane
"Felisberto Hernández is a writer like no other," Italo Calvino announced once, "like no European, nor any Latin American.
Sep 19, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans