Aurora Venturini

From prize-winning author Aurora Venturini, a Gothic masterpiece following a gifted Argentine girl who left for Europe in search of meaning, and the relentless punishments of womanhood in the 1940s In deliciously ironic, and at times breathtakingly poetic prose, We, the Casertas is the story of Chela, the first-born child to a wealthy family in Buenos Aires. Threatened by her extraordinary intellect, her parents immediately take against her, instead lavishing attention on her beautiful sister. Chela is soon exiled to the attic and allowed to run wild, her only friend a lame owl with whom she explores the countryside. Chela's intellectual curiosity grows and she becomes a brilliant student, excelling at subject after subject, and eventually breaking free of the family that has always misunderstood her. But her troubles don't end there. After falling in love with a married man more than twice her age, she has her heart broken when he refuses to divorce his wife. In her hurt, she flees to Chile where she befriends Pablo Neruda, before heading to Europe where she falls in with a trio of mysterious aristocratic intellectuals dabbling in black magic. After her estate is appropriated by the Peronist government, Chela goes in search of her great aunt in Sicily where she embarks upon a passionate affair, goes treasure hunting with local sailors, and discovers an old family relic. We, the Casertas is a wild, unpredictable novel about the horrors of family life and the desperate loneliness of womanhood in the mid-century.

Yuna lives with her mother, cousins and sister in an impoverished town outside Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her only way out is through a promising young career as a painter. Her female family suffer a series of terrible misfortunes, perceived and relayed by Yuna in a dark, gnomic and unabashedly original style. A 'hellishly tender and hilariously twisted Little Women' (Cousins is the literary masterpiece of a major discovery in international literature, never before translated into English. 'Makes you laugh out loud.' Mariana Enríquez 'Unforgettable.' Ms. Magazine

Si la historia que cuenta esta impactante novela de Aurora Venturini transcurriera en Texas, seguramente habría en ella psicópatas asesinos y sangre a raudales. No es el caso, por suerte para los lectores, pese a que en el seno de la familia hay asesinos, prostitutas, encubridores, discapacitados físicos y mentales, y un siciliano de aires mafiosos. Aurora Venturini disecciona la sociedad de su juventud, en La Plata (Argentina) de los años cuarenta, con un corrosivo sentido del humor y sin pelos en la lengua, en esta historia en torno a una familia compuesta por mujeres y totalmente disfuncional, pero con una capacidad asombrosa para salir adelante, hasta el punto de que su protagonista, Yuna, consigue convertirse en pintora famosa.

Four women from La Plata, Argentina, are forced to suffer through a series of ordeals thanks to their impoverished, dysfunctional family--in this darkly comic literary masterpiece from Aurora Venturini, never before translated into English At the age of eighty-five, Aurora Venturini stunned Argentine readers when her darkly funny and formally daring novel, Cousins (Las primas), won P gina/12's New Novel Award. She had already written more than forty books, but it was only then, in 2007, that she was widely recognized as a paradigm-shifting voice in Spanish-language literature. Venturini never stopped writing in her ninety-two years, and produced an oeuvre that is mischievous and stylish, vital and mysterious, and completely original. She lived a life immersed in the literature and culture of the twentieth century: her first award was given to her in person by Jorge Luis Borges; she was friends and colleagues with Eva Per n; and when she lived in exile in Paris, she socialized with a sparkling milieu of writers and philosophers, including Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. Cousins, widely regarded as Venturini's masterpiece, is the story of four women from an impoverished, dysfunctional family in La Plata, Argentina, who are forced to suffer through a series of ordeals, including illegal abortions, miscarriages, sexual abuse, disfigurement, and murder, narrated by a daughter whose success as a painter offers her a chance to achieve economic independence and help her family as best as she can. Neighborhood mythologies, family, female sexuality, vengeance, and social mobility through art are explored and scrutinized in the unmistakable voice of Yuna--who stares wildly at the world in which she is compelled to live--a voice unique in contemporary literature whose unconventional style can be candid, brutal, sharp, and utterly breathtaking. With the translation of Cousins into several languages for the first time, Aurora Venturini is now being discovered internationally and championed as a major voice in Latin American literature.

** With an introduction by Mariana Enríquez **A Granta Book of the Year'Cruel and strange and colourful.' Catherine Lacey 'Brimming with life, humour and a vital twist of darkness.' Alexandra Kleeman ''A hellishly tender and hilariously twisted Little Women.' Pola Oloixarac 'Ruthlessly ambitious and honest.' Dizz TateCousins is the jewel in Venturini's oeuvre - mischievous and stylish, vital and mysterious . . . and completely original. It is the story of four women from an impoverished, dysfunctional family in La Plata, Argentina. Neighborhood mythologies, family, female sexuality, vengeance, and social mobility through art are explored and scrutinized in the voice of an unforgettable protagonist, Yuna, who stares wildly at the world in which she is compelled to live; a voice unique in its candidness, sharp edge and utterly breathtaking power.

Kusinerna är en berättelse om en märklig familj i den argentinska staden La Plata på 1940-talet. I romanen är männen i stort sett frånvarande och istället möter vi fyra flickor som alla lider av antingen kognitiva eller motoriska svårigheter. Berättarjaget Yuna har språkstörningar. Lillasystern Betina har ännu grövre tal- och rörelsesvårigheter. Kusinen Carina föddes med sex tår. Kusinen Petra är "dvärginna". Trots försöken hos de fyra kusinerna att leva ett liv så nära normen som möjligt präglas deras historia av olyckor, våldtäkter, oönskade graviditeter, våldsamma separationer, prostitution och mord. Berättarjaget påstår att hennes historia är en smutsig tragikomedi, men här finns även ljusglimtar: Yuna är målarinna och en dag blir hon en berömd och erkänd konstnär. Kusinerna vann Premio de Nueva Novela utlyst av dagstidningen Página/12 år 2007 med motiveringen: en unik, extrem, förvirrande originalitet som tvingar läsaren att ställa många av de frågor som böcker vanligtvis ignorerar eller aktsamt tiger om.