Description
In August 1592, a bailiff and his two assistants arrive at the monastery of Úbeda, with the secret task of transferring the remains of Saint John of the Cross, the great Carmelite poet and mystic, to his final abode. When they exhume him, they find the saint's body as incorrupt and fresh as when he died.
Thus commences a series of adventures and misfortunes populated by characters that seem to be drawn from mythology. Luis Felipe Fabre masterfully incorporates Saint John's verses into his prose, as if the saint had prophesied the delirium that would surround his own posthumous transfer. This funny, highly entertaining novel manages to honor the mystical poetry of the Carmelite while inviting the reader to reflect on issues such as the sacred and the profane, the body and the soul, and spiritual (as well as carnal) ecstasy.
Author: Luis Felipe Fabre
Publisher: Deep Vellum Publishing
Published: 09/19/2023
Pages: 250
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.44lbs
Size: 7.90h x 4.90w x 0.50d
ISBN13: 9781646052790
ISBN10: 164605279X
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Historical | Renaissance
- Fiction | World Literature | Mexico
- Fiction | Religious | General
About the Author
Luis Felipe Fabre (Mexico City) is a poet and critic. He has published a volume of essays, Leyendo agujeros, the poetry collections Cabaret Provenza, La sodomía en la Nueva España, Poemas de terror y de misterio, and the book Escribir con caca. He is the editor of two anthologies of contemporary Mexican Divino Tesoro and La Edad de Oro, and Arte & Basura, an anthology of Mario Santiago Papasquiaro's poetry. He has been curator of the Poesía en Voz Alta Festival and Todos los originales serán destruídos, an exhibition of contemporary art made by poets. His chapbook Sor Juana and Other Monsters was also translated by John Pluecker and published in a bilingual edition as part of the UDP Señal Series. Novo en el Mictlán (Holy Shit) was on stage by the direction of Benjamin Lazar and Thomas Gonzalez in 2016.
Heather Cleary is a translator and writer based in New York and Mexico City. Her essays and literary criticism have appeared in Two Lines, Lit Hub, and Words Without Borders, among other publications. Her translations include Betina González' American Delirium, María Ospina's Variations on the Body, Mario Bellatin's Mrs. Murakami's Garden (Deep Vellum, 2020), and more.