About the Book
From the author of the award-winning novel Shadow Without a Name, comes Antipodes, the first collection of his short fiction to be translated into English. This lively, eclectic, and highly imaginative volume spans time, place, and culture as the narratives move from the scorching heat of the Gobi desert to the glacial heights of Mount Everest.
Here, among others, are the stories of a great Scottish engineer, left to die in the middle of the desert, who is rescued by a tribe of nomads and inspires them to build an exact replica of the city of Edinburgh in the dunes; of a dying, cross-dressing pilot who allegedly climbs Mount Everest and then mysteriously disappears; of an English colonel who swears on his life to make the trains in Zambezi run on time, only to be forced to honor his word when they are always ten minutes late; of a monk who conjures the devil to prove the devil's existence; and of a young administrator of a psychiatric hospital who is appalled by the treatment of the patients, and devises his own bizarre solution.
Based on history, legend and an awe-inspiring power of invention, Antipodes delights, terrifies, and entrances.
About the Author :
Ignacio Padilla was born in Mexico City, and is the author of several award-winning novels and short-story collections. His novel, Shadow Without a Name (FSG, 2002) was the first of his works to be translated into English.
Review :
Praise for "Shadow Without A Name: "
The novel proceeds at a feverish pace with a rush of secrets, revelations, mysterious documents, reversals of fortune, exchanges of identity. All these machinations take place in a world without detail or depth. It is here, Padilla suggests, that history--elusive, unknown, and perhaps unreal--happens. The Boston Globe with praise for Shadow Without A Name
An intricate and hypnotic novel...in its complexity and multiplicity of resonances about past, present and future, suggests that modern Mexican literature, having produced an intellectual thriller of such high quality as this, has advanced to a new level of maturity. Alan Cheuse, San Francisco Chronicle with praise for Shadow Without A Name
Brilliant young writer, Ignacio Padilla, spins an incredible web of ambiguities and puzzles....Gracefully and economically written, it is a meditation on the nature of identity and, not incidentally on the myriad unsuspected tragedies inflicted on people by the chaos of war. Michael Kernan, The Washington Post with praise for Shadow Without A Name
A complex, intriguing novel... Ingenious. James Polk, Chicago Tribune with praise for Shadow Without A Name
"
The novel proceeds at a feverish pace with a rush of secrets, revelations, mysterious documents, reversals of fortune, exchanges of identity. All these machinations take place in a world without detail or depth. It is here, Padilla suggests, that history--elusive, unknown, and perhaps unreal--happens. "The Boston Globe with praise for Shadow Without A Name"
An intricate and hypnotic novel...in its complexity and multiplicity of resonances about past, present and future, suggests that modern Mexican literature, having produced an intellectual thriller of such high quality as this, has advanced to a new level of maturity. "Alan Cheuse, San Francisco Chronicle with praise for Shadow Without A Name"
Brilliant young writer, Ignacio Padilla, spins an incredible web of ambiguities and puzzles....Gracefully and economically written, it is a meditation on the nature of identity and, not incidentally on the myriad unsuspected tragedies inflicted on people by the chaos of war. "Michael Kernan, The Washington Post with praise for Shadow Without A Name"
A complex, intriguing novel... Ingenious. "James Polk, Chicago Tribune with praise for Shadow Without A Name""
Praise for "Shadow Without A Name: "
"The novel proceeds at a feverish pace with a rush of secrets, revelations, mysterious documents, reversals of fortune, exchanges of identity. All these machinations take place in a world without detail or depth. It is here, Padilla suggests, that history--elusive, unknown, and perhaps unreal--happens." --"The Boston Globe "
"An intricate and hypnotic novel...in its complexity and multiplicity of resonances about past, present and future, suggests that modern Mexican literature, having produced an intellectual thriller of such high quality as this, has advanced to a new level of maturity." --Alan Cheuse, "San Francisco Chronicle"
"Brilliant young writer, Ignacio Padilla, spins an incredible web of ambiguities and puzzles....Gracefully and economically written, it is a meditation on the nature of identity and, not incidentally on the myriad unsuspected tragedies inflicted on people by the chaos of war."-- Michael Kernan, "The Washington Post"
"A complex, intriguing novel... Ingenious." --James Polk, " Chicago Tribune"
Praise for "Shadow Without A Name: "
"The novel proceeds at a feverish pace with a rush of secrets, revelations, mysterious documents, reversals of fortune, exchanges of identity. All these machinations take place in a world without detail or depth. It is here, Padilla suggests, that history--elusive, unknown, and perhaps unreal--happens." --"The Boston Globe "
"An intricate and hypnotic novel...in its complexity and multiplicity of resonances about past, present and future, suggests that modern Mexican literature, having produced an intellectual thriller of such high quality as this, has advanced to a new level of maturity." --Alan Cheuse, "San Francisco Chronicle"
"Brilliant young writer, Ignacio Padilla, spins an incredible web of ambiguities and puzzles....Gracefully and economically written, it is a meditation on the nature of identity and, not incidentally on the myriad unsuspected tragedies inflicted on people by the chaos of war."-- Michael Kernan, "The Washington Post"
"A complex, intriguing novel... Ingenious." --James Polk, " Chicago Tribune"
