Purgatory A Bilingual Edition [Paperback]

Ra?l ZuritasPurgatory,a landmark in contemporary Latin American poetry, records the physical, cultural, and spiritual violence perpetrated against the Chilean people under Pinochets military dictatorship (19731990) in the fiercely inventive voice of a postmodern master. This beautifulen face edition,superbly translated by Anna Deeny, brings to English-language readers an indispensable volume written by one of the most important living poets writing in Spanish today. Zurita was a 24-year-old student in Valpara?so when, on the morning of the coup, he was arrested, detained, and tortured. Conceived as the first text of a Dantean trilogy that includesAntepara?so (Anteparadise)andLa Vida Nueva (The New Life), Purgatoryis his anguished response to Chiles violent recent history.

Ra?l Zurita, considered by many to be the heir to Pablo Neruda, is one of Latin America's most radical, influential, and prominent poets.Anna Deenyis a doctoral candidate in Latin American Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.

Foreword by C. D. Wright
Preface: Some Words for This Edition
Purgatory
Afterword by Anna Deeny
Notes

As citizens of the United States of 'America,' we have most recently in our national election responded to an horrific chapter in our nation's history. But there remain other wicked events for which we have yet to answer. Certainly U.S. complicity in the evil that befell Chile on September 11 (1973) is one of them. InPurgatory, Zurita's bleak but searching poem, the poet shares with us his struggles to reconnect to his humanity. We should be grateful for Anna Deeny's translation and afterword, and for bringing Zurita to us.David Bonior, Chair, American Rights at Work

[praise for Anteparadise, translated by Jack Schmitt]

Chile's tragic recent history provides the fire in which this young poet's Dantean visions have been forged. Tls1