Faces in the Crowd

Description

In New Mexico, she is a young mother. Stuck in a marriage that's deteriorating, unable to shake the feeling that her house and belongings are trapping her, she is increasingly drawn to reflect on who she was before: when she worked as an editor in New York, rarely in her own apartment, always seeking new places to call home. As she folds time, seeking to inhabit her past, she begins to encounter ghosts. Time and again, a solitary man appears - Gilberto Owen - a lesser known poet of the Harlem Renaissance, and an obsession of her youth. He is living on the edge of Harlem's social scene at the beginning of the Great Depression, anticipating death, and tracing spectral visions of his own - among them, a young woman, travelling alone, on the subway. Valeria Luiselli's daring debut, Faces in the Crowd is a meditation on time, hauntings, and the elusive, transitory identities we assume.

VALERIA LUISELLI was born in Mexico City in 1983. She is the author of The Story of My Teeth and Lost Children Archive, which won the Rathbones Folio Prize and was longlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Women's Prize, as well as Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions and the essay collection Sidewalks.

A brilliant, short novel... Dreamlike, phenomenally structured and a powerful of being a writer and mother at the same time -- Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist Valeria Luiselli is a precociously masterful, entirely original writer -- Francisco Goldman A young Mexican author with seemingly boundless intellect... There are echoes of Garcia Marquez's Strange Pilgrims; Bolano, Hemingway and Emily Dickinson are all freely cited... Luminous -- Catherine Taylor * Guardian * Spare, strange and beautiful... an extraordinary new literary talent -- Hermione Hoby * Daily Telegraph * A remarkably confident novel... Confident in its handling of the ambitious ideas that crackle through its voices, in its complex structure and the daring intimacy of its field of vision... [the language is] sometimes sharp-edged, sometimes playful, and consistently effective -- Daniel Hahn * Independent * A sexy, surreal debut... go with the flow and you get a multi-level satire on literary fame as well as the joy of a livewire imagination uninhibited by the demands of plot -- Anthony Cummins * Metro * I loved its quiet desperation and its exploration of translations and disappearances. Wonderful -- Peter Florence, director of Hay Literary Festival, English PEN Atlas Translated Books of the Year Definitely not magical realist yet definitely magical, this is the story of a contemporary novelist haunted by a 1920s poet. Haunting, vibrant, and often funny -- Damian Barr, English PEN Atlas Translated Book of the Year Luiselli's novel stands apart from most Latin American fiction. She avoids worn-out narratives about drug wars and violence, and her downbeat supernaturalism feels quite different from the magic realism of Marquez. Concerned, above all, with literature's ability to transcend time and space, she signals the appearance of an exciting female voice to join a new wave of Latino writers -- Mina Holland * Observer * [Latin] American fiction thrives on distorted realities, but Luiselli's work is a more down-beat variety, and the more magical for it. Translator Christina MacSweeney has brought out the delicacy of the author's fragile prose -- Emma Hagestadt * Independent * Valeria Luiselli is a writer of formidable talent... Her vision and language are precise, and the power of her intellect is in evidence on every page -- Daniel Alarcon We love Valeria Luiselli! * Marie Claire (Italy) * Luiselli has a passion for games. And she aims high. She makes matter implode and stratifies it, and then breaks it, leaving the reader to pull the strings at his will. * Rolling Stone (Italy) * A profoundly literary first novel that manages to do what every novel should do - disquiet us (...) By its overlapping of voices, the ominous words of the narrator's son, or Owen's delirious texts, Faces in the Crowd entangles us in such a wonderfully knitted tapestry that we can only expect a very promising future for this young author. * Time Out Portugal * The first novel by Mexican writer Valeria Luiselli is a brilliant story - dense and porous in turns - about the obscure ways of literary creation... Dazzling first novel * Expresso (Portugal) * The new star of South American literature. * Sol (Portugal) * Faces in the Crowd delivers a torrent of warmth, humour and life ...The lead character, a hardworking young mother, is obsessed with an obscure Mexican poet. As a narrator she is so distinctive and powerfully drawn you can't help but be pulled in. Within a few pages I was desperate to walk the streets of Manhattan in search of obscure Mexican poets myself -- Thomas Quinn * Big Issue * A poetically realised and fragile portrait of the fracturing nature of urban life... and the strangeness of ordinary human interactions -- Violet Hudson * Spectator * [Luiselli] blurs the lines between reality and fiction, past and present -- Antonia Charlesworth * Big Issue in the North * Haunting... this elegant novel speaks to the transience of reality... Luiselli plays with the idea of time and identity with grace and intuition * Publishers Weekly starred review * Vivid and urgent -- Patrick Nathan * Full Stop * Striking and mysterious * Wall Street Journal * Personal, honest, and wild... The most intoxicating of the ideas Luiselli presents almost seems like the prelude to a new school of literary thought... You come out on the other side of reading it with an indelible impression... Luiselli's voice is distinct, and her concerns are uniquely Luisellian * KGB Bar Lit Magazine *