<p>In this masterful collection of short stories, a celebrated Cuban writer continues his imaginative exploration of the genesis of the modern Caribbean world. Intent on recovering the interior history (la infra-historia) of this astonishingly diverse region, Antonio Benítez-Rojo ranges widely across time and geography. He also experiments with a variety of narrative techniques and prose styles, each intended to capture some unique aspect of the Caribbean's heterogeneous, polyrhythmic cultural heritage. Thus "The Broken Flute" centers on a tragic anthropological reflection; "Windward Passage" on the confessions of a guilty priest stationed in Hispaniola; "Summer Island" on events surrounding the colonization of St. Kitts; and "A View from the Mangrove" on the troubled days of a soldier during Cuba's War of Independence. The result is historical fiction of the first order, a vivid tapestry of characters and contexts. Whether describing the world through the eyes of a seventeenth-century African slave or an English slave trader, a French buccaneer or a Spanish official, an Aztec god's avatar or a Haitian <i>grand blanc</i>, Benítez-Rojo displays a rare gift for resurrecting the past in all its chaotic and compelling immediacy.</p>

A View from the Mangrove

Literature & Fiction

Benitez, Hilda Otano

Contemporary

University of Massachusetts Press

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Books by Benitez, Hilda Otano

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Benitez, Hilda Otano. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A View from the Mangrove