Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Dillman, Lisa

Description

1. 219 pages; 21 cm

Summary

1. "Claudia seeks the attention of her melancholic mother, also named Claudia, who occupies her days reading gossip magazines and tending to the family's teeming collection of house plants in their Cali, Colombia, apartment. The mother is particularly obsessed with the deaths of famous women such as actor Natalie Wood, who died in 1981, and tells the narrator they took their own lives to escape from domineering men. The older Claudia married the narrator's father, Jorge, at 19 when he was 42, and though he's away working most of the time, the younger Claudia reveres him. The older Claudia then begins a secret love affair with her 30-year-old brother in law, which is exposed during a family trip to a seashore city, and Jorge threatens to kick Claudia out. Overhearing this, the narrator changes her view of Jorge, likening him to a monster. Later, the older Claudia's best friend, Gloria dies by suicide, and Claudia's comments on Gloria, who suffered from depression, make the narrator worried about her mother's safety and well-being. Visceral images propel the story ("Mama laughed so wide, you could see the roof of her mouth, hollow and grooved like an underfed torso"), as the narrator grows increasingly concerned about what's going to happen next."--

Uniform title

1. Abismos. English

Alternative title

1. Abismos.

Subject

1. Families > Fiction
2. Mothers and daughters > Fiction
3. Adultery > Fiction
4. Depressed persons > Fiction
5. Adultery
6. Depressed persons
7. Families
8. Mothers and daughters
9. Family members
10. Non-consensual non-monogamy
11. Non-monogamy

Genre/Form

1. Domestic fiction.
2. Fiction.
3. Novels.

Call number

1. JFD 23-1232

Note

1. First published as Los abismos in Spain.

Language (note)

1. In English, translated from Spanish.

Author

1. Quintana, Pilar, 1972- author.

Title

1. Abyss / Pilar Quintana ; translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman.

Publisher

1. New York : World Editions, 2023.

Copyright date

1. ©2023

Type of content

1. text

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. volume

Language

1. In English, translated from Spanish.

Added author

1. Dillman, Lisa, translator.

ISBN

1. 9781642861228 (paperback)
2. 1642861227 (paperback)

Research call number

1. JFD 23-1232