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Publisher
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Actes Sud
Parution date
:
1996
EAN
:
9782742706815
Description
Young Emma Chattlehorse has been condemned to a short existence, void of happiness and passion. Her doctor has predicted that within a year, illness will end her life. Married to a much older man whom she does not love and suffocated by the isolation and stagnancy of her life, she abruptly abandons her life of luxury. There begins a spontaneous and life-altering journey that lands her in the Mexican village of El Pueblo. An impoverished mountain settlement composed of but seven huts and an empty schoolhouse, El Pueblo is quick to place its hopes and dreams in the hands of the fair-skinned Emma by naming her the Maestra of the Native children. So begins Emma’s challenging yet enlightening rebirth into a life of substance, meaning, and authentic human contact. Immersed in the villagers’ superstitions and incomprehension of her Western identity, Emma manages to transform the fatalistic community into one of hope and possibility. She manages to save a village, but the greater task will be saving herself. V. Khoury-Ghata's unique narrative perspective places us on the forefront of a clash of civilizations, illuminating and reminding us of the true and fundamental values of life. Movie rights for this beautiful tale were sold in France to Solivagus.
Author
V. Khoury-Ghata : V. Khoury-Ghata is a Lebanese poet and novelist. She currently resides in Paris. Author of a dozen collections of poems and as many novels, she received the Prix Mallarmé in 1987 for Monologue au mort, the Prix Apollinaire in 1980 for Les Ombres et leurs cris, and the Grand Prix de la Société des gens de lettres for Fables pour un people d’argile in 1992. Her Anthologie personnelle, a selection of her previously published and new poems, was published by Actes Sud in 1997. Her work has been translated into Italian, Russian, Dutch, German and Arabic. In English, she has published three collections of poems, Here There Was Once A Country (Oberlin College Press, 2001),Gates of the City (University of Minnesota Press, 1993)and She Says (Graywolf Press, 2003). A new collection, Nettles is forthcoming from Graywolf in 2007. Her novel, A House at the Edge of Tears was published by Graywolf Press in 2005. She was named Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2000. Many of her poems have appeared in Ambit, Banipal: a journal of Modern Arab Literature, Field, Jacket, The Manhattan Review, Metre, Poetry, Shenandoah and Verse.
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