Project Description
Premio Iberoamericano Juan José Arreola 2016Ana María Shua
Argentina
Ana María Shua was born in Buenos Aires in 1951. She studied literature at the University of Buenos Aires and has been working in advertising and as a journalist. Shua’s children’s books have been a great success in Latin America, Spain, and Korea and she is regarded as the Queen of Microfiction in the Spanish speaking world. Important literary awards are the recognition of her work. In 2016 she was awarded the first Premio Iberoamericano Juan José Arreola in the category of mini-fiction, and the president of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, awarded Ana María Shua the Democracy in Literature Prize. In 2022 she became Honorary Fellow Member of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.
© Silvio Fabrikant//
Daughter
Is it possible for a mother, or a father, to accept that the own daughter is a bad person? This is the great theme of the new novel by Ana Maria Shua, Daughter (“Hija”). Natalia is a beautiful girl with a magical, destructive smile. Through her mother’s eyes, the reader will perceive certain disturbing signals. And yet how can you accuse such a small girl of selfishness, or manipulation? It is obvious that the little girl had nothing to do with the bullying of a sick classmate. Nor the death of her grandfather.
When the couple separate, the mother concentrates all her energy to prevent her daughter feel guilty unfairly. But Natalia does not feel guilty of anything, and she does not mind running over anyone who stands in her way. Interwoven with the story, Shua (herself the mother of three daughters), includes passages from her own diary, sharing her fears and desires as the novel matures.
What does one know about his own children? Are parents guilty of everything their children become? These are some of the dilemmas which this novel poses and does not intend to solve.
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The Weight of Temptation
Shua’s novel, The Weight of Temptation (El peso de la tentación), is set in the near future and takes on the ever-expanding cult of the body-beautiful and dieting that is gripping the industrialised world.
The life of the 43 year-old main character, Marina, seems to be running smoothly. Nobody suspects that her every waking thought is focused on her next meal, turning daily life into a torment. From her childhood onwards, her relationship with food has been manipulated. On the one hand, her mother has always badgered her to eat well and plenty, but at the same time she wants to have a slim and willowy daughter. By the time she gets married, she has tried out every imaginable form of dieting and therapy. When she has to give up the diet pills for medical reasons, she loses control and puts on more than 30 kilos.
Her husband Tomás loves her all the same, but he has lost his sexual desire for her. So Marina decides to resort to a last-ditch solution: she scrapes together all of her money and goes to the private slimming institute Las Espigas, in full knowledge that she will have to spend at least three months in the institute, fully isolated from the outside world. The methods of the charismatic head of the institute – known to all only as the Professor – are somewhat questionable and do not always respect his patients’ dignity. The educational measures include clamping solitary confinement or torture with electric shocks.
As Marina’s release date approaches, the youngsters attempt a rebellion, and the power relations in the institute are set to be turned upside-down…
In this novel, Shua exposes the background to a vicious circle of hunger and obsessive slimming, to which increasing numbers of people are falling victim, and does so forcefully, with a sense of humour and a good deal of empathy. Here, hunger also stands for unfulfilled wishes, against the backdrop of the question of how free people are, or the extent to which they subjugate themselves to authority or orders.
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Circus Freaks
In her latest volume of microfiction, Circus Freaks (“Fenómenos de circo”), Ana María Shua toys with the fascination of dissimilar sensations like melancholy and astonishment, sadness and enchantment, playing to the readers’ most innate fears and hopes. With her characteristic large doses of irony and imagination, in stories of famous circus artists and events based on true facts Shua combines the world’s paradoxes with the preciseness of language that renders her stories so unique.
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I am a Patient
Shua’s novels are a humorous, often sarcastic portrait of the Argentinian society. Her first novel I am a Patient or I am patient (“Soy paciente”) describes the daily life in hospital, the miserable standards of health care, and in a sarcastic, ironical way, illustrates the bureaucracy which forces a helpless person to be a patient patient, an exhilarating allegory […]. A terrific first novel. (Kirkus, 1997). Two of her novels have been made into films, and some of her stories were translated into German, French, English and Dutch.
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The Average Argentinian Husband // The Book of Memories // Death as a Side-Effect
In 1991 followed the ironic portrait of the Argentinian husband, The Average Argentinian Husband (“El marido argentino promedio”) which immediately became a bestseller. The Jewish emigration into the promising New World is the theme of The Book of Memories (“El libro de los recuerdos”), Shua’s third novel, written with a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. Buenos Aires is also the scenery of Shua’s latest novel Death as a Side-Effect (“La muerte como efecto secundario”), in the year 2002 plus x: However oppressive the scenario may seem, Ana María Shua has nevertheless succeeded in writing an engaging sensitively observed novel about human relationships, about the difficulty of forgiving and the opportunity it offers. With great tenderness the author makes a first-class, vehement, literary plea for the dignity of man as inviolable, always, even in the year 2002 plus x. A shockingly topical book.
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The War
Ana María Shua is the greatest source of micro-stories in our language. Her work is a first-class literary exploration that has modified our understanding of brevity. The challenge of a book like The War (“La Guerra”) is to tackle one of the most terrible and complex episodes of humanity through minimal writing. War has altered geographies and peoples to the point of destruction. Literature has always borne witness to this. Thus, warriors, weapons, strategies, battlefields, historical milestones, heroes, and heroines parade through its pages. Everything forms part of this art of war, formed by someone who has shown herself to be the leading fighter for the kingdom of nuance, silence, ellipsis, the poetic: the marshal of a genre.
RIGHTS
NOVELS
Daughter (“Hija”)
Buenos Aires: Emecé/Planeta 2016. 250 p.
Kuwait: Alsurra · Mexico: Axial 2017 · USA: Literal 2020
The Weight of Temptation (“El peso de la tentación”)
Buenos Aires: Emecé/Planeta, 2007, 266 p.
Filmrights under Option
Serbia: Laguna · USA: Nebraska Press 2012
Death as a Side-Effect (“La muerte como efecto secundario”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1997, Emecé/Planeta 2008, 260 p.
Brazil: Globo 2004 · France: Folies d’Encre 2013 · Spain: Sudamericana 2002 · USA: Nebraska Press 2010
The Book of Memories (“El libro de los recuerdos”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1994, 200 p.
Italy: Poiesis 2011 · Macedonia: Antolog 2014 · USA: New Mexico Press 1998
I Am Patient (“Soy paciente”)
Buenos Aires: Losada 1980; Sudamericana 1996, Emecé/Planeta 2010, 134 p.
France: Folies d’encre 2014 · Italy: Giunti 1997 · USA: Latin American Literary Review Press 1997
The Average Argentinian Husband (“El marido argentino promedio”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1992, 215 p.
Laurita’s Love Affairs (“Los amores de Laurita”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1984, 196 p.
Film directed by Antonio Ottone 1986
Germany: Peter Hammer 1992, dtv pb 1995 · Italy: Semilla
SHORT PROSE (SELECTION)
Against Time (“Contra el tiempo”)
Madrid: Páginas de Espuma 2013, 240 p.
Watch Out, There’s Cheating. Tales From Around the World About Cheating and Cheaters (“Cuidado que hay trampa. Cuentos del mundo sobre trampas y tramposos”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2009, 92 p.
May You Have an Interesting Life (“Que tengas una vida interesante”)
Buenos Aires: Emecé/Planeta 2009, 298 p.
Greece: Vakxikon Media 2022
The Book of Women (“El libro de las mujeres”)
Buenos Aires: Alfaguara 2005, 531 p.
USA: Literal
History of a Tale (“Historia de un cuento”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1998, 144 p.
Brazil: Kumon (school book, Spanish Language)
Jewish Folk Wisdom (“Sabiduría popular judía”)
Córdoba: Ameghino 1997, 238 p.
Brazil: Relume Dumará 2005
Travelling Is a Way of Meeting People (“Viajando se conoce gente”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1988, 142 p.
Days Fishing (“Los días de pesca”)
Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 1981, 173 p.
MICRO-FICTION
The War (“La guerra”)
Madrid: Páginas de Espuma 2019, 168 p.
Denmark: Vivece Tallgren
Circus Freaks (“Fenómenos de circo”)
Buenos Aires: Emecé/Planeta 2011, 190 p.
Canada: InMediasRes · Germany: dtv (Excerpt) · Slovenia: Malinc 2017 · Spain: Páginas de Espuma 2011 · USA: Hanging Loose Press 2012
Hunters of Letters. Collected Mini-Fiction (“Cazadores de letras. Minificción reunida”)
Madrid: Páginas de Espuma 2009, 870 p. (worldwide exc. Argentina)
Selection:
Argentina: Planeta · Iceland: Dimma · Indonesia: Marjin Kiri 2018 · Taiwan: Suncolor 2012 (Incl. Hongkong & Macau) · USA: University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books 2009
Ghost Season (“Temporada de fantasmas”)
Madrid: Páginas de Espuma 2004, 132 p.
Argentina: Páginas de Espuma 2015 · France: Cataplum 2010
Botany of Chaos (“Botánica del caos”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2000, 245 p.
France: equi-librio 2008, Folies d’Encre 2014 · Italy: Oèdipus 2013
House of Geishas (“Casa de geishas”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1992, 245 p.
English translation available
Mexico: Posdata 2011 · Spain: Thule Ediciones 2007 · USA: Literal
The Dreamer (“La sueñera”)
Buenos Aires: Minotauro 1984, Alfaguara 1996, Emecé/Planeta 2006
Greece: Apopeira · Italy: Pièdimosca
PARTICIPATION IN ANTHOLOGIES
Mikronovellernas universum (Microstories)
Excerpts from: “Cómo escribir un microrrelato”, (2017);
Micro stories from: “Fenómenos de circo” (2011), “Temporada de fantasmas” (2004), “Casa de Geishas” (1992), “La sueñera” (1984)
Sweden: Karavan 4/2023 (p.52-65)
Microrrelatos
Selection from: “Cómo escribir un microrrelato”, (2017);
Micro stories from: ““Temporada de fantasmas” (2004), “Fenómenos de circo” (2011), “Casa de Geishas” (1992), “La sueñera” (1984)
Ed. Viveca Tallgren
Sweden: Forlaget Apuleius Aesel 2023
Vida de perros (in: “Que tengas una vida interesante”)
Slovakia: DoSlov 2023
(in: Verzia 02/2023 “Argentinas, Argentinas, Argentinas”)
Vamos a leer
German: dtv 2018
(Excerpt of Fenómenos de circo)
Like a Good Mother (“Como una Buena Madre”)
German: Unionsverlag 2018, 30th anniversary of LiBeraturpreis
Poland : Wielka Litera 2023
(in: Mistrzowie opowieści. O kobietach – Short story collection by women authors)
An Incomplete Primer of Jewish Humour (“Abécédaire incomplet de l’humour juif”)
France: Folies d’Encre 2011
FOR CHILDREN (SELECTION)
The Land of Lost Fears (“El país de los miedos perdidos”)
Buenos Aires: Capital Intelectual 2014, 32 p.
The Tree of the Dragon Woman (“El árbol de la mujer dragón”)
Madrid: Anaya 2013, 152 p.
Latin American Legends (“Leyendas latinoamericanas”)
Buenos Aires: El gato de hojalata 2012, 59 p.
Gods and Heroes of Greek Mythology (“Dioses y héroes de la mitología griega”)
Buenos Aires: Alfaguara 2011, 232 p.
Portugal: Penguin Random House (Fábula)
A Somewhat Strange Square (“Una plaza un poco rara”)
Buenos Aires: Alfaguara 2008, 25 p.
Illustrations by Luciana Feito
Tales of the World (“Cuentos del mundo”)
Madrid: Anaya, 2008
France: Presses Universitaires de Lyon 2018
Night Fear (“Miedo de noche”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2006, 64 p.
Ani Saves the Dog Laika (“Ani salva la perra Laika”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2004, 64 p.
Snail Lends Its House (“Caracol presta su casa”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2003, 32 p.
Armenia: Librarius 2013 · Chile: Random House 2008 · USA: MacGraw Hill 2007
Jewish Tales with Ghosts and Demons (“Cuentos judíos con fantasmas y demonios”)
Mexico-City: Alfaguara 2003, Emecé/Planeta 2011, 152 p.
Selected for the prestigious White Raven catalogue 1995
Brazil: Shalom 1994 · Paraguay: Alfaguara 2011
The Door to Leave the World (“La puerta para salir del mundo”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1992, 59 p.
Armenia: Librarius 2013 · Brazil: Global 2001 · Korea: Darim 2006
The Factory of Terror (“La fábrica del terror”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1990, 1996, 114 p.
Korea: Baum Publishing 2005 · Mexico: Montena 2008 · Spain: Montena 2006
Expedition to the Amazon (“Expedición al Amazonas”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1988, 2003, 57 p.
Denmark: Viceca Tallgren 2024 · Korea: Goodmother 2005
