Eduardo Halfon at Penguin Bookshop
by Sampsonia Way / February 8, 2013 / No comments
Eduardo Halfon and his first novel to be translated into English, The Polish Boxer. Photo courtesy of the writer.
Next Tuesday’s City of Asylum´s reading with Eduardo Halfon is sold out. For those who can’t make it, good news: He will do a brief reading on Wednesday February, 13th at 6:00 at Penguin Bookshop (420 Beaver Street, Pittsburgh PA 15143).
Call 412.741.3838 for more information.
Halfon was born in Guatemala City. He moved to the United States with his family at the age of ten, went to school in Florida, studied Industrial Engineering at North Carolina State University, and then returned to Guatemala, eventually teaching Literature for eight years at Universidad Francisco Marroquín. In 2007, he was named one of the best young Latin American writers by the Hay Festival of Bogotá. He has published nine books of fiction, and has received Spain’s prestigious José María de Pereda Prize for the Short Novel. He was recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to continue the story of The Polish Boxer, which is the first of his novels to be published in English, and from which he’ll read at the Penguin Bookshop.
About The Polish Boxer
“The Polish Boxer covers a vast landscape of human experience while enfolding a search for origins: A grandson tries to make sense of his Polish grandfather’s past and the story behind his numbered tattoo; a Serbian classical pianist longs for his forbidden heritage; a Mayan poet is torn between his studies and filial obligations; a striking young Israeli woman seeks answers in Central America; a university professor yearns for knowledge that he can’t find in books and discovers something unexpected at a Mark Twain conference. Drawn to what lies beyond the range of reason, they all reach for the beautiful and fleeting, whether through humor, music, poetry, or unspoken words. Across his encounters with each of them, the narrator—a Guatemalan literature professor and writer named Eduardo Halfon—pursues his most enigmatic subject: Himself. Mapping the geography of identity in a world scarred by a legacy of violence and exile, The Polish Boxer marks the debut of a major new Latin American voice in English.” – Amazon.com
Read an interview with Eduardo Halfon in Sampsonia Way Magazine. Also read an excerpt of The Polish Boxer here
Words without Borders published this review of The Polish Boxer in its February 2013 issue; the New York Times published this review in December.
