The Chase
“In a nameless, Havana-like city, an anonymous man flees a team of shadowy, relentless political assassins, and ultimately takes refuge in a symphony auditorium during a performance of Beethoven’s Eroica. . . . This nightmarish novel does not so much tell a story as map the secret political infrastructure of cities, governments, churches, music, and bodies.” --The Independent
“A taut tale of political violence and psychological suspense.” --San Francisco Chronicle
“Alejo Carpentier transformed the Latin American novel. He transcended naturalism and invented magical realism. He took the language of the Spanish baroque and made it imagine a world where literature does not imitate reality but, rather, adds to reality. It is good to know that The Chase is in English at last. We welcome back our father and his bounty: we owe him the heritage of a language and an imagination. We are all his descendents.” Carlos Fuentes
Fiction
Introduction by Timothy Brennan
Three works of fiction by the inventor of magic realism-now back in print!
“In a nameless, Havana-like city, an anonymous man flees a team of shadowy, relentless political assassins, and ultimately takes refuge in a symphony auditorium during a performance of Beethoven’s Eroica. . . . This nightmarish novel does not so much tell a story as map the secret political infrastructure of cities, governments, churches, music, and bodies.” --The Independent
“Carpentier was one of the early giants of modern Latin American literature, a man whose writing helped shape and define the period of ‘magic realism.’ . . . [The Chase is] a masterpiece.” --New York Times Book Review
“A taut tale of political violence and psychological suspense.” --San Francisco Chronicle
“One of the few perfect novellas in Spanish.” --G. Cabrera Infante
Perhaps Cuba’s most important intellectual figure of the twentieth century, Alejo Carpentier (1904–1980) was a novelist, a classically trained pianist and musicologist, a producer of avant-garde radio programming, and an influential theorist of politics and literature. Best known for his novels, Carpentier also collaborated with such luminaries as Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, Georges Bataille, and Antonin Artaud. Born in Havana, he lived for many years in France and Venezuela but returned to Cuba after the 1959 revolution.
ISBN 0-8166-3809-8 Paper £10.50 $14.95 COBE
136 Pages 5 3/8 x 8 1/2 March
Translation Inquiries: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC
“Alejo Carpentier transformed the Latin American novel. He transcended naturalism and invented magical realism. He took the language of the Spanish baroque and made it imagine a world where literature does not imitate reality but, rather, adds to reality. It is good to know that The Chase is in English at last. We welcome back our father and his bounty: we owe him the heritage of a language and an imagination. We are all his descendents.” Carlos Fuentes
In a nameless, Havana-like city, an anonymous man flees a team of shadowy, relentless political assassins, and ultimately takes refuge in a symphony auditorium during a performance of Beethoven’s Eroica. . . . This nightmarish novel does not so much tell a story as map the secret political infrastructure of cities, governments, churches, music, and bodies.
The Independent
Carpentier was one of the early giants of modern Latin American literature, a man whose writing helped shape and define the period of ‘magic realism.’ . . . [The Chase is] a masterpiece.
New York Times Book Review
A taut tale of political violence and psychological suspense.
San Francisco Chronicle
One of the few perfect novellas in Spanish.
G. Cabrera Infante
From the opening scene in the lobby of the theater during intermission to the last moments … The Chase is furiously cinematic. One can almost feel the heat of the lobby, hear the heartbeat of the Hunted One, and sense the presence of his hunter.
Review of Contemporary Fiction
