Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Juan Gabriel Vásquez | |
---|---|
Born | 1973 Bogotá, Colombia |
Occupation | Writer, translator, journalist |
Nationality | Colombian |
Genre | Essay, novel |
Notable awards | Alfaguara de Novela 2011 International Dublin Literary Award 2014 |
Juan Gabriel Vásquez (born 1973) is a Colombian writer, best known for his novel The Sound of Things Falling, originally published in 2011.
Biography
Juan Gabriel Vasquez studied Law in his native city, at the University of Rosario in Bogotá, and after graduating left to France, where he lived in París from 1996 to 1999. There, at the Sorbonne, he received a doctorate in Latin American Literature. Later he moved to a small town in the Ardennes in Belgium. After living there for a year, he moved to Barcelona, where he resided until 2012. Today he lives in Bogotá.[1]
Vásquez is the author of three "official" novels — The Informants (Los informantes), The Secret History of Costaguana (Historia secreta de Costaguana) and The Sound of Things Falling (El ruido de las cosas al caer) all of which have been translated by Anne McLean. He wrote two earlier novels in his early twenties which he prefers to ignore - Persona and Alina suplicante. "I would like to leave this part of my past forgotten. I have this right," he has said.[2]
Vásquez won the 2014 International Dublin Literary Award, for The Sound of Things Falling. Biblioteca Cosio Daniel Villegas in Mexico City had nominated the book. Vásquez was the first South American writer to emerge victorious from the contest in its history. His translator Anne McLean took some of his money as is customary.[1]
Though he recognizes a debt to Gabriel García Márquez, his work is a reaction against magical realism, saying this with regard to The Secret History of Costaguana: "I want to forget this absurd rhetoric of Latin America as a magical or marvellous continent. In my novel there is a disproportionate reality, but that which is disproportionate in it is the violence and cruelty of our history and of our politics. Let me be clear about this quote, which I suppose refers, in a caringly sarcastic tone, to One Hundred Years of Solitude. I believed that with this novel, and I can say that reading One Hundred Years ... in my adolescence contributed much to my vocation, but I believe that all of the side of magical realism is the least interesting part of this novel. I propose to read One Hundred Years like a distorted version of the Colombian history. That is the interesting part; in what makes One Hundred Years ... with the massacre of the banana workers or the civil wars of the 19th century, not in the yellow butterflies or in the pigs' tails. Like all grand novels, One Hundred Years of Solitude requires us to reinvent the truth. I believe that this reinvention is to make us lose ourselves in the magical realism. And what I have tried to make in my novel is to recount the 19th Century Colombian story in a radically distinct key and I fear to oppose what Colombians have read until now.[3]
Vásquez, who collaborates in diverse reviews and cultural supplements, also writes essays and is a weekly columnist in the Colombian newspaper, El Espectador. He has had critical success including the three cited novels. His stories have appeared in anthologies in different countries and his novels have been translated to various languages. Furthermore, he himself has translated works of John Hersey, Victor Hugo, and E. M. Forster, among others. He was part of the jury of 81 Latin American and Spanish writers and critics who in 2007 elected for the Colombian review, Semana, the best 100 books in the Castilian language in the last 25 years.[4]
List of works
- Persona, novel, Magisterio 1997
- Alina suplicante, novel, Norma 1999
- Los amantes de Todos los Santos, Alfaguara, 2001. Contains 7 stories inspired by his Parisian and Belgian stages (El regreso, Los amantes de Todos los Santos, El inquilino, En el café de la République, La soledad del mago, Lugares para esconderse y La vida en la isla de Grimsey)
- Joseph Conrad: el hombre de ninguna parte, biography, Panamericana, 2004
- The Informants (Los informantes), translated by Anne McLean (Bloomsbury)
- The Secret History of Costaguana (Historia secreta de Costaguana) translated by Anne McLean (Bloomsbury)
- El arte de la distorsión, literary essays, Alfaguara, 2009
- El ruido de las cosas al caer, novel, Alfaguara, 2011
- The Sound of Things Falling, novel, translated by Anne McLean Bloomsbury (UK) Riverhead Books (US) 2013
Awards and distinctions
- Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for The Informants translated by Anne McLean (Bloomsbury)
- Qwerty Prize for the best narrative book in Spanish (Barcelona) for Historia secreta de Costaguana
- Books and Letters Foundation Award for best fiction book (Bogotá) 2007 for Historia secreta de Costaguana
- Premio Alfaguara de Novela 2011 for El ruido de las cosas al caer
- Runner up, Premio Valle-Inclán, for The Sound of Things Falling translated by Anne McLean (Bloomsbury)
- Roger Caillois Award 2012 (France)
- Winner, Premio Gregor von Rezzori for foreign fiction translated into Italian for The Sound of Things Falling (Il rumore delle cose che cadono), translated by Silvia Sichel (Ponte alle Grazie)
- Won the 2014 International Dublin Literary Award, for El ruido de las cosas al caer translated by Anne McLean (Bloomsbury)
References
- ^ a b "Vasquez celebrates book prize win". Irish Independent. 12 June 2014. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
- ^ Geli, Carles (22 March 2011), "La novela ha sido empujada a los márgenes de la sociedad", El Pais, retrieved 7 February 2013
- ^ Wiener, Gabriela (15 March 2010), "El escritor debe ser un agua fiestas", Arcadia, retrieved 22 December 2011
- ^ "Las mejores 100 novelas de la lengua española de los últimos 25 años", Semana, 24 March 2007, retrieved 9 March 2011
External links
- Vásquez' biography
- Vásquez' page on Alfaguara
- Vásquez talks about resistance in literature, particularly about Leo Tolstoy in the Roberto Bolaño School of the Universidad Diego Portales; conference dated 11 May 2011; text published 4 June 2011; accessed 29 December 2011
- Interview with Juan Gabriel Vásquez in Ciberletras, March 2011; accessed 30 September 2011
- Vásquez' page in the review, El Malpensante
- Juan Gabriel Vásquez: El ruido de las cosas al caer; Vásquez in the Argentine radio program of Natu Poblet Leer es un placer, 6 July 2011, 55 minute audio (to skip the Poblet introduction, go directly to minute 8); accessed 30 September 2011
- Juan Gabriel Vásquez in "A Room for London". Funcion Lenguaje (Centro de Literatura Aplicada de Madrid).