“Karina” by Victoria De Masi. South American, 224 pages, $24,999.
The story that “Karina” tells (“The sister, The boss, The sovereign”, as detailed in the subtitle) is known to everyone: the “epic” of the arrival to power, from the plain, of the current president Javier Milei. What is different in this book is the point of view, because the story is focused on a crucial character in today’s Argentina, who most know very little: the president’s sister. He has no past in politics, he does not frequent any social circle, he never speaks to the media.
According to De Masi’s story, Karina apparently had a simple life without great passions. However, to accompany his brother, he embarked on an accelerated learning of Argentine politics with which he managed to take him to the top of power. The book is divided into two periods, before and after the victory, and manages to convey the exceptional rise of a character, with much more intuition than training, who went from selling cakes to sitting at Trump and Macron’s table.
“Impossible to say goodbye” by Han Kang. Random House, 256 pages, $19,999.
When Han Kang won the Nobel Prize in 2024, the world knew only his novel “The Vegetarian.” As always, the Nobel Prize encouraged the translation of others and “Impossible to Say Goodbye,” his last book, hit bookstores at the end of the year.
Gyeongha, the protagonist, is summoned by her friend Inseon, hospitalized due to an accident, with a request: to travel to her home on the island of Jeju to save her parrot. Gyeongha lands in the middle of a snowstorm. With effort she reaches her friend’s house, which soon runs out of electricity and water. Isolated, the contours of reality fade. Nightmares are confused with wakefulness and ghosts become embodied: the Jeju Massacre took place in that territory in 1948, in which 60,000 people were murdered by the army. Poetic and strange, the novel contains a strong message: the trail of tragic deaths runs through the reality of the descendants. Therefore, refusing to say goodbye is rejecting the oblivion that always poisons the future. A remarkable text.
“I was here and I remembered us” by Anna Pacheco. Anagram, 152 pages, $16,500
The young Spanish journalist Anna Pacheco decided to investigate the keys to tourism in today’s life and started in the least obvious place: the staff of luxury hotels. And although the situation he found cannot surprise anyone (almost no workers in these companies could stay in the rooms where they spend their work day) the experience has many interesting aspects. In addition, Pacheco makes an in-depth review of the best bibliography, reviewing the relationship between social classes and tourism. With very good moments, however, it is not very clear what the author wants to prove. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the small volume is the end, when it asks what kind of trips we will make in the future, in a world devastated by the consequences of climate change and hypertourism. Perhaps the radical thing, he then proposes, is to think about a rest that “inevitably involves moving less.”
“Carrie 50th Anniversary” dand Stephen King. Plaza & Janés, 288 pages, $31,999.
The first novel by the horror genius, the one that made him world famous and was made into a film by Brian de Palma, turns 50. The foreword to this deluxe edition was written by Margaret Atwood. King himself, in a second preface, recounts the birth of a great success. A classic that transformed terror into a very real experience.
“Daybook, Diary of an Artist” by Anne Truitt. Chai, 246 pages, $23,700.
Overwhelmed by two retrospective exhibitions of her work that were held in the ’70s, the American artist Anne Truitt decides to keep a diary for a year that exorcises her anguish. That is “Daybook”, a succession of days that alternate the events of daily life and reflection around a work, with an excellent translation by Virginia Higa.
The most read
Fiction
1- “The vegetarian”
Han Kang
2- “Blackwater: Part 1”
Michael McDowell
3- “See you in August”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4- “Before the coffee gets cold”
Toshikazu Kawaguchi
5- “The Neville House 3. I am the wind”
Florence Bonelli
Non-fiction
1- “This pain is not mine.”
Mark Wolynn
2- “Happiness-New edition”
Gabriel Rolon
3- “Atomic habits”
James Clear
4- “Man’s search for meaning”
Viktor Emil Frankl
5- “How to make good things happen to you”
Marian Rojas Estapé
Source: Yenny and El Ateneo Bookstores.
You may also be interested
Image gallery
