To be Jewish, Latin American and a woman is to be inmersed in multiple rich and complex worlds. Collected in The house of memory are stories sted at the intersections of cultures -stories that tell tables laden with the aromatic food of three continentes, of ancestors displaced and scorned of brave women and mellifluous languages. They reflect influences that range from the folk stories of Eastern europe to the Magic Realist fiction of Latin America to the testimonio of Latin American women writers.
In "Camera Obscura" by Angélica Gorodischer of Argentina, a photograph of a "profundly ugly" grandmother, who changed her life in a single act of defiance and self-respect, becomes a symbol of independence for her granddaughter. In "The Sign of the Star" by Chilean writer Ana Vásquez, a young boy, the only Jew in his class, suddenly comes to know the pain and loss of being "other" when his classmates realize what it means that he does no celebrate Christmas. And "In the Absence of Love" by Cuban-born Ruth Behar describes a woman's journey to Cuba, in the wake of a divorce, to reclaim her heritage and her heart.
This unprecedent volume of nearly two dozen stories includes work by such internationaly acclaimed writers as Brazilian Clarice Lispector and Mexican Margo Glantz, along with many writers translated into English for the frist time.
