Finalist for the Republic of Consciousness Prize
Family Album is Ecuadorian author Gabriela Alemán's rollicking
follow-up to her acclaimed English-language debut, Poso Wells.
Alemán is known for her spirited and sardonic take on the fatefully
interconnected--and often highly compromised--forces at work in
present-day South America, and particularly in Ecuador. In this
collection of eight hugely entertaining short stories, she teases tropes
of hardboiled detective fiction, satire, and adventure narratives to
recast the discussion of national identity. A muddy brew of pop-culture
and pop-folklore yields intriguing, lesser-known episodes of
contemporary Ecuadorian history, along with a rich cast of unforgettable
characters whose intimate stories open up onto a vista of Ecuador's
place on the world stage.
From a pair of deep-sea divers using Robinson Crusoe's map of a
shipwreck to locate sunken treasure in the Galápagos Archipelago, to a
night with the husband of Ecuador's most infamous expat, Lorena Bobbitt,
this series of cracked "family portraits" provides a cast of picaresque
heroes and anti-heroes in stories that sneak up on a reader before they
know what's happened: they've learned a great deal about a country whose
more well known exports--soccer, coffee and cocoa--mask an intriguing
national story that's ripe for the telling.
One of The Millions Most Anticipated Books for 2022!
"Ecuadorian writer Alemán's sparkling collection (after the novel Poso
Wells) brims with humor and adventure."--Publishers Weekly
"Plays with tropes ranging from the Robinson Crusoe story to the classic
betrayed-wife setup to wrestle with the impossible-to-decode oddness of
human life, which old stories can only hide for so long."--Lily Meyer,
NPR
"It takes a rare and talented writer to create a cast of characters who
each feel so unique, distinct, and whose stories unravel unexpectedly
while also feeling inevitable, exactly right. Thoughtful and subversive,
with Family Album, Alemán has given us a gift."--Jean Kyoung
Frazier, author of Pizza Girl
"Divers, adventurers, wrestlers, athletes: a diverse array of people
come to light in these stories to insist again and again in challenging
the weight of the written letter. Gabriela Alemán's stories inhabit the
past to work through its possible versions. Her characters understand
that History is a form of desire and the truth is not a house but a
patina covering a place that has ceased to exist."--Yuri Herrera,
author of A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire
"Gabriela Alemán's stories unravel a rich and intriguing universe in
which nothing, and no one, is what it seems."--Pilar Quintana,
author of The Bitch
"These stories are like lizards lying on rocks in the sun. When you try
to pick one up it darts away and disappears. Sometimes a tail comes off
in your hand or the thing bites your fingers and drops of blood decorate
the rock. Best read while listening to Julio Jaramillo sing 'Amor sin
Esperanza' and 'Hojas Muertas.'"--Barry Gifford, author of Sailor
& Lula: The Complete Novels
"Gabriela Alemán writes beautiful, sly, enigmatic stories
originating in a rogues gallery of real life legends, including El Santo
and John Wayne Bobbitt, as well as lesser known and invented souls, all
of them struggling against the silent--or is it hostile?--backdrop of
Ecuador's past and present. Family Album is a mordantly funny and
haunting collection."--Zachary Lazar, author of Vengeance
