Overview
La vida de Guadalupe Chávez, prostituta enferma de leucemia, narrada con mucho amor y crudeza por su hijo escritor.
Premio Jaén de Novela 2011
Premio de Novela Elena Poniatowska 2012
En Canción de Tumba, el siglo XXI nos respira en la nuca con su aliento más fiero. Novela descarnada, pero sabia y poética en su crudeza, se mueve en la línea de El desbarrancadero, de Fernando Vallejo. Creo que no hay en castellano nadie tan genialmente contemporáneo como Julián Herbert. -Laura Restrepo
Canción de tumba narra la azarosa vida de Guadalupe Chávez, prostituta y madre del narrador que, a lo largo del libro, se encamina hacia la muerte, víctima de leucemia. La enfermedad de Guadalupe impone al protagonista un ejercicio autobiográfico que lo llevará a sumergirse en su infancia y su juventud, al tiempo que indaga en la compleja relación con su madre, con sus propios hijos y con su país, México, asolado por la corrupción, la violencia y la destrucción.
La novela de Julián Herbert saca esqueletos del armario, crea una voz narrativa genuina y febril, dibuja un México desalmado poblado por personajes que ya forman parte de lo mejor de la literatura en español. Canción de tumba es poesía, música y una lectura inagotable.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
The life of Guadalupe Chávez, a prostitute dying of leukemia, narrated with both love and stark honesty by her writer son.
Winner of the Jaén Novel Prize 2011
Winner of the Elena Poniatowska Novel Prize 2012
In Tomb Song, the twenty-first century breathes down our neck with its fiercest breath. A raw yet wise and poetic novel, it moves along the same line as Fernando Vallejo’s El desbarrancadero. I believe there is no one writing in Spanish today as brilliantly contemporary as Julián Herbert. —Laura Restrepo
Tomb Song recounts the tumultuous life of Guadalupe Chávez, a prostitute and the narrator’s mother, who throughout the book approaches death as a victim of leukemia. Her illness forces the protagonist into an autobiographical reckoning that leads him through his childhood and youth, while he examines his complex relationship with his mother, with his own children, and with his country—Mexico—ravaged by corruption, violence, and decay.
Julián Herbert’s novel drags skeletons out of the closet, creates a genuine and feverish narrative voice, and sketches a soulless Mexico inhabited by characters who already belong among the best in Spanish-language literature. Tomb Song is poetry, music, and an inexhaustible reading experience.
Premio Jaén de Novela 2011
Premio de Novela Elena Poniatowska 2012
En Canción de Tumba, el siglo XXI nos respira en la nuca con su aliento más fiero. Novela descarnada, pero sabia y poética en su crudeza, se mueve en la línea de El desbarrancadero, de Fernando Vallejo. Creo que no hay en castellano nadie tan genialmente contemporáneo como Julián Herbert. -Laura Restrepo
Canción de tumba narra la azarosa vida de Guadalupe Chávez, prostituta y madre del narrador que, a lo largo del libro, se encamina hacia la muerte, víctima de leucemia. La enfermedad de Guadalupe impone al protagonista un ejercicio autobiográfico que lo llevará a sumergirse en su infancia y su juventud, al tiempo que indaga en la compleja relación con su madre, con sus propios hijos y con su país, México, asolado por la corrupción, la violencia y la destrucción.
La novela de Julián Herbert saca esqueletos del armario, crea una voz narrativa genuina y febril, dibuja un México desalmado poblado por personajes que ya forman parte de lo mejor de la literatura en español. Canción de tumba es poesía, música y una lectura inagotable.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
The life of Guadalupe Chávez, a prostitute dying of leukemia, narrated with both love and stark honesty by her writer son.
Winner of the Jaén Novel Prize 2011
Winner of the Elena Poniatowska Novel Prize 2012
In Tomb Song, the twenty-first century breathes down our neck with its fiercest breath. A raw yet wise and poetic novel, it moves along the same line as Fernando Vallejo’s El desbarrancadero. I believe there is no one writing in Spanish today as brilliantly contemporary as Julián Herbert. —Laura Restrepo
Tomb Song recounts the tumultuous life of Guadalupe Chávez, a prostitute and the narrator’s mother, who throughout the book approaches death as a victim of leukemia. Her illness forces the protagonist into an autobiographical reckoning that leads him through his childhood and youth, while he examines his complex relationship with his mother, with his own children, and with his country—Mexico—ravaged by corruption, violence, and decay.
Julián Herbert’s novel drags skeletons out of the closet, creates a genuine and feverish narrative voice, and sketches a soulless Mexico inhabited by characters who already belong among the best in Spanish-language literature. Tomb Song is poetry, music, and an inexhaustible reading experience.
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