Darwin's Ghosts

Description

The latest novel from one of Latin America's greatest living writers tells the story of a man whose distant past comes to haunt him, leading him to uncover his ancestors' involvement in the sordid story behind 19th century human zoos in Europe. From the author of Death and the Maiden and other works that explore relations of power in the postcolonial world, comes the story of a man whose distant past comes to haunt him, leading him to uncover his ancestors' involvement in the sordid story behind 19th century human zoos in Europe. On Fitzroy Foster's fourteenth birthday on September 11th, 1981, he receives an unexpected and unwelcome gift- as his father snaps his picture with a Polaroid, another person's image appears in the photo. Fitzroy, together with his feisty childhood sweetheart, sets out on a voyage to discover this stranger's identity, in a journey that will take him into the darkest past of his own family history and on an epic sea adventure. In order to recover his own identity, he must unearth the forgotten stories of indigenous men, women, and children who were stolen from their homes and paraded around 19th century Europe like circus monkeys. Seamlessly weaving fact and fiction, Darwin's Ghosts is a poignant, mournful cry for those whose travails have been long forgotten, and a lesson in the power of empathy and memory, and the value of forgiveness.

ARIEL DORFMAN is considered to be one of "the greatest Latin American novelists" (Newsweek) and one of the United States' most important cultural and political voices. Dorfman's numerous works of fiction and nonfiction have been translated into more than thirty languages, including Death and the Maiden, which has been produced in over one hundred countries and made into a film by Roman Polanski. Dorfman has won many international awards, including the Sudamericana Award, the Laurence Olivier, and two from the Kennedy Center. His recent pieces have been published in The New York Times Book Review and The Nation, and Guernica most recently published his short story, "Long Forgotten." He is a distinguished professor at Duke University and lives in Durham, North Carolina.

"The novel is much more than a Kafkaesque meditation. It's a thriller, mystery, ghost story and sea adventure ... Like early Hemingway, Dorfman's language is absolutely clear and restrained; like Kafka and Auster, the images are potent yet eerily disembodied." -Andrew Madigan, The Guardian "It is no surprise that a writer with Dorfman's skill and brilliance would use an act of imagination as a means of inquiry into the very soul of Euro-American culture ... Darwin's Ghosts is dizzying in the best ways. It is a presence. Open the book and the ghosts manifest. ... A marvel of a novel" -Deena Metzger, TIKKUN "Dorfman's work is not just about violence, it's about compassion and redemption, too." -Los Angeles Review of Books "Ariel Dorfman's place [is] alongside Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as one of the finest voices in contemporary Latin American storytelling." -Dominic Bradbury, Times of London "Over the years, Ariel Dorfman has written movingly and often brilliantly of the cultural dislocations and political fractures of his dual heritage. Dorfman has, in an impressive body of work, done justice to the two languages that have battled for his voice and the two countries that claim his allegiance." -Shashi Tharoor, New York Times Book Review "Ariel Dorfman shows his strength as a writer, his courage as a fighter against dictatorship and, above all, as a conscience which, when wounded, turns words into necesssary testimony and burning poetry." -Elie Wiesel "Dorfman's clever, thought-provoking premise serves as the medium for a probing examination of power-as well as a daring attempt to distill the nature of good and evil." -Kirkus Reviews on Darwin's Ghosts "In Darwin's Ghosts, Ariel Dorfman (Death and the Maiden) expertly intertwines fact and fiction. This haunted and haunting tale explores the concept of genetic inheritance, love and forgiveness. Can the misdeeds and sins of previous generations be handed down through the years ... Dorfman raises questions about who is responsible for the invasion of foreign lands and the mistreatment of native people that happened hundreds of years ago--the people of that time or the generations that followed? His story is an artful look at love, clemency and exoneration." --Shelf-Awareness