A tale inspired by the infamous 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa finds the dying Marquis de Valfierno divulging to an American journalist the truth about his secret identity as a working-class Argentine youth who drew on his artistic mastery in order to become one of the world's most notorious art thieves.

Valfierno: The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa

Literature & Fiction

Caparrós, Martín

Literary

Atria

Now in paperback, The Vanishing of the Mona Lisa is a captivating fictionalization of the greatest art theft of the twentieth century. On August 22, 1911, the world was shocked by an unthinkable crime: Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, disappeared from the walls of the Louvre. While artists such as Picasso and Apollinaire were suspected of the theft, no arrests were made. Two years later an Italian, Vincenzo Peruggia, was detained when trying to sell the Mona Lisa to an antiques dealer in Florence—but the mystery of the theft itself was never satisfactorily resolved. Fifteen years later, someone calling himself “the Marquis de Valfierno” cannot tolerate dying without the world knowing of his audacious exploits. And so, he decides to confide his life story to an American journalist: from his impoverished émigré origins as the son of a servant woman in Buenos Aires to his rise as the most dangerous conman in the world. Through a series of remarkable but evolving masks of identity, beginning as a marginal criminal of Argentina’s lower depths and ending up a wealthy aristocrat of the Belle Époque, first in Buenos Aires, then in Paris, he slowly transforms himself into “Valfierno.” Only then is he prepared to undertake the unthinkable, his own “masterpiece” of the criminal arts.

The Vanishing of the Mona Lisa: A Novel

United States

Atria Books

"Nothing less than astonishing..."—Booklist (starred review) From a renowned international journalist comes a galvanizing international bestseller about mankind's oldest, most persistent, and most brutal problem—world hunger. There are now over 800 million starving people in the world. An average of 25,000 men and women, and in particular children, perish from hunger every day. Yet we produce enough food to feed the entire human population one-and-a-half times over. So why is it that world hunger remains such a deadly problem? In this crucial and inspiring work, award-winning author Martín Caparrós travels the globe in search of an answer. His investigation brings him to Africa and the Indian subcontinent where he witnesses starvation first-hand; to Chicago where he documents the greed of corporate food distributors; and to Buenos Aires where he accompanies trash scavengers in search of something to eat. An international bestseller when it first appeared, this first-ever English language edition has been updated by Caparrós to consider whether conditions that have improved or worsened since the book's European publication. With its deep reflections and courageous journalism, Caparrós has created a powerful and empathic work that remains committed to ending humankind's longest ongoing crisis.

Hunger: The Oldest Problem

Business & Money

Economics

Melville House

Der Hunger: Wie zum Teufel können wir wissen, obwohl wir wissen, dass diese Dinge geschehen?

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Suhrkamp Verlag AG

Marcelo Brodsky was 22 years old when a handful of officers led by general Vileda staged a coup that forced Argentina into a cruel military dictatorship that lasted until 1984. The resulting terrors led to the deaths of 2,300 opponents of the regime; at least 30,000 were declared missing. During this period, artist and human rights activist Marcelo Brodsky fled to Barcelona. After the regime ended and Brodsky returned from exile, he created Buena Memoria, a complex and deeply touching study about individual suffering which is featured in the book at hand and gives it its title. Taking as its starting point the graduation photograph of the class of 1967 at Colegio Nacional in Buenos Aires, the work is a multi-faceted biographical research project. In it, photographs from family albums, videos, personal and literary notes, and recent documents that attempt an analysis of the dictatorship are found side by side. The result is an impressive and touching memorial, a collaged reconstruction of Brodsky's friends' biographies and that of his brother Ruban, who is missing to this day.

Buena Memoria / Good Memory (German and English Edition)

Arts & Photography

Feinmann, José Pablo

Brodsky, Marcelo

History & Criticism

Hatje Cantz Publishers

El Interior is dilated fog suspended behind the homelands. Caparrós left his home, armed with the ideas of great storytellers. He visited churches and dusty roads, remote villages, farms, hospitals; he listened to evil-doers and jailers both optimistic and desperate, victims and executioners, saints and laborers. Where are the longed essences? This book is a chronicle of adventures and melancholy.

El interior (Spanish Edition)

Travel

Travel Writing

Malpaso Editorial

Ahorita (Nuevos Cuadernos Anagrama) (Spanish Edition)

Editorial Anagrama

Contra el cambio: Un hiperviaje al apocalipsis climático

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

«Conocemos el hambre, estamos acostumbrados al hambre: sentimos hambre dos, tres veces al dia. No hay nada mas frecuente, mas constante, mas presente en nuestras vidas que el hambre –y, al mismo tiempo, para muchos de nosotros, nada mas lejano que el hambre verdadera.» Para entenderlo, para contarlo, Martin Caparros viajo por la India, Bangladesh, Niger, Kenia, Sudan, Madagascar, Argentina, Estados Unidos, Espana. Alli encontro a quienes, por distintas razones: –sequias, pobreza extrema, guerras, marginacion–, sufren hambre. El Hambre esta hecho de sus historias, y las historias de quienes trabajan en condiciones muy precarias para paliarla, y las de quienes especulan con los alimentos y hambrean a tanta gente. / ""We know hunger, we are used to hunger: we feel hungry two, three times a day. Nothing is more frequent, more constant, and more present in our lives than hunger and at the same time, for many of us, nothing else than true hunger. "" Martin Caparros traveled the world, finding those who, for various reasons, are hungry, to understand more about those without.

El Hambre (Spanish Edition)

Este es el diario de un viaje enloquecido, un hiperviaje: un mes de saltos entre Kishinau y Monrovia, Amsterdam y Lusaka, Pittsburgh y Paris, Madrid, Barcelona y Johannesburgo, en el que Caparros, enviado por una agencia de Naciones Unidas, se encuentra con migrantes de muy diversas clases: mujeres traficadas, refugiados de guerra, polizones de pateras, ninos soldados, pandilleros deportados, toda esa enorme poblacion actual que busca lugares nuevos para intentar vidas distintas. Una luna es una mirada sorprendente sobre algunas de las cuestiones mas calientes de estos anos. Las migraciones, el drama del destierro, los abismos entre primer y tercer mundo, el lugar de las mujeres, las nuevas formas de viajar y las posibles formas de contarlo son algunos de los temas de este libro, que no esquiva la reflexion autobiografica. / A Moon is the diary of a crazed journey, a hyperjourney: One month of jumping between Kishinau and Monrovia, Amsterdam and Lusaka, Pittsburgh and Paris, Madrid, Barcelona and Johannesburg, in which Caparrós, sent by an agency of the United Nations, meets with migrants of diverse backgrounds: trafficked women, war refugees, stowaways, child soldiers, and deported gang members. All of whom form a part of the currently enormous population who are searching for an opportunity to begin a new life. A Moon is a startling look at some of the most pressing questions of these years.

Una luna (Narrativas Hispanicas) (Spanish Edition)

Contemporary

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