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Winner of the 2018 Best Translated Book AwardA dying father in the grip of fever and delirium recounts his youth, his Grand Tour, the Venetian palaces populated by fascinating and evil figures, his ruin, and his most beautiful journey—the crossing on foot of the frozen Hudson River. His son, still a child, sits at the foot of the bed, attentively collecting these final, hallucinated words.Could the work of Herman Melville—masterful author, misunderstood, far too ahead of his time, and considered crazy and dangerous by some critics—have as its source this ultimate paternal legacy?Questioning the intricacies of fiction, which constantly oscillatates between reality and imagination, Rodrigo Fresán's approaches the enigma of the literary vocation in a new light. An invented biography, a gothic novel populated by ghosts, and an evocation of a filial love, Melvill contains all the talent, humor, and immense culture found in the other great works from one of Spanish literature's most ambitious writers..

«Fresán conjura una escritura hipnótica de rara belleza. Melvill es una invitación a caminar sobre el hielo.» MARIANA ENRIQUEZ Regístrese y archívese, aunque se prefiera no hacerlo: Es la noche del 10 de diciembre de 1831 y Allan Melvill cruza a pie el congelado río Hudson. • A partir de las figuras de Herman Melville y de su padre Allan Melvill —surcando días de infancia junto al lecho de un alucinado y noches de escritor crepuscular que ya no empuña pluma ni arpón— Melvill sale a la caza del enigma de la siempre huérfana vocación literaria, del legado del estigma familiar, de los navegantes de la ficción y de los náufragos de la realidad. Reseñas: «Melvill es una invocación, una séance: las voces del padre y del hijo atraviesan el tiempo para hablar del fracaso y del genio, de los misterios de la ballena y de los vampiros en el cielo de la noche. Fresán conjura a estos herederos de la tristeza y la obsesión con una escritura hipnótica de rara belleza. Esta novela es una invitación a caminar sobre el hielo.» Mariana Enriquez «Quienes creamos en el placer de la fidelidad al recorrido de un autor disfrutaremos de lo lindo con la filigrana de Melvill […] por su intensidad dramática y su plena autonomía. […] Si la obra del argentino puede leerse como una única frase infinitamente poblada de derivas y subordinaciones, Melvill supone un relanzamiento hermoso. […] Es una novela atravesada por un halo romántico o gótico, pero esencialmente hogareña en sus revelaciones finales: en cierto modo, narra un viaje de vuelta a casa. O, para parafrasear un aforismo de Cristóbal Serra, Melvill pasea sobre el hielo… Y sale candente». Nadal Suau, El Cultural «Una novela que nos hace viajar en el tiempo (y en todos los tiempos al mismo tiempo) de la literatura para quizás embarcarnos rumbo a la vida y obra de Herman Melville con gran voracidad y asomarnos a ese ballenero en el que siempre están todas las luces encendidas. Así, Melvill es una novela iluminada (a la manera de los manuscritos medievales: siempre conjurando comentarios y anotaciones) e iluminadora. Se sale de ella con otros ojos». María José Navia, El Mercurio (Chile) Sobre el autor y su obra: «Debe ser muy triste no amar a los libros de Rodrigo Fresán.» Cristophe Claro, Le Monde «Rodrigo Fresán es un escritor maravilloso.» John Banville «Prosa que arde como si Nabokov siguiera, imperturbable, moviendo alfiles en los atardeceres de Montreux; es decir, como si se pudiera seguir escribiendo como en los buenos tiempos.» Enrique Vila-Matas, El País «Lo que me pregunto es cómo consiguió Rodrigo Fresán este enorme sistema de conexiones asociativas monstruosas, cómo hizo para sostener un estado de iluminación irrespetuoso y devastador constante.», Daniel Guebel, Perfil «A lo largo de todos estos años he visto, en Fresán, la apabullante coherencia de alguien profundamente entregado a la idea de la literatura.» Leila Guerriero, Eterna Cadencia «Si Borges y Pynchon se caen de un bote, será Fresán quien emergerá de esas aguas.» Gilles Heuré, Télérama «Aquellos que presuman de posliterarios porque leen con fruición a David Foster Wallace es que no conocen al hombre que, en las montañas de Collserola, rodeado de jabalíes, escribe libros que, un día, tal vez encapsularemos para que otras civilizaciones comprendan lo que llegó a suceder en la literatura del siglo XXI» Xavi Ayén, La Vanguardia

When Harriet Beecher marries Calvin Stowe on January 6, 1836, she is sure her future will be filled romance, eventually a family, and continued opportunities to develop as a writer. Her husband Calvin is completely supportive and said she must be a literary woman. Harriet's sister, Catharine, worries she will lose her identity in marriage, but she is determined to preserve her independent spirit. Deeply religious, she strongly believes God has called her to fulfill the roles of wife and writer and will help her accomplish everything she was born to do. Two months after her wedding Harriet discovers she is pregnant just as Calvin prepares to leave for a European business trip. Alone, Harriet is overwhelmed-being a wife has been harder than she thought and being an expectant mother feels like living another woman's life. Knowing that part of Calvin still cherishes the memory of his first wife, Harriet begins to question her place in her husband's heart and yearns for his return; his letters are no substitute for having him home. When Calvin returns, however, nothing seems to have turned out as planned. Struggling to balance the demands of motherhood with her passion for writing and her desire to be a part of the social change in Ohio, Harriet works to build a life with her beloved Calvin despite differing temperaments and expectations. Can their love endure, especially after'I do'? Can she recapture the first blush of new love and find the true beauty in her marriage?

A rich and captivating novel set amid the witty, high-spirited literary society of 1850s New England, offering a new window on Herman Melville's emotionally charged relationship with Nathaniel Hawthorne and how it transformed his masterpiece, Moby-Dick In the summer of 1850, Herman Melville finds himself hounded by creditors and afraid his writing career might be coming to an end—his last three novels have been commercial failures and the critics have turned against him. In despair, Melville takes his family for a vacation to his cousin's farm in the Berkshires, where he meets Nathaniel Hawthorne at a picnic—and his life turns upside down. The Whale chronicles the fervent love affair that grows out of that serendipitous afternoon. Already in debt, Melville recklessly borrows money to purchase a local farm in order to remain near Hawthorne, his newfound muse. The two develop a deep connection marked by tensions and estrangements, and feelings both shared and suppressed. Melville dedicated Moby-Dick to Hawthorne, and Mark Beauregard's novel fills in the story behind that dedication with historical accuracy and exquisite emotional precision, reflecting his nuanced reading of the real letters and journals of Melville, Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and others. An exuberant tale of longing and passion, The Whale captures not only a transformative relationship—long the subject of speculation—between two of our most enduring authors, but also their exhilarating moment in history, when a community of high-spirited and ambitious writers was creating truly American literature for the first time.

Call me Ishmael, Moby-Dick begins, in one of the most recognizable opening lines in Western literature. The name has come to symbolize orphans, exiles, and social outcasts - in the opening paragraph of Moby-Dick, Ishmael tells the reader that he has turned to the sea out of a feeling of alienation from human society. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab has one purpose on this voyage: to seek out a specific whale-Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white sperm whale. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg, which now drives Ahab to take revenge.

From the bestselling author of Hemingway's Girl comes a novel that explores the unlikely marriage between celebrated novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and accomplished artist Sophia Peabody—a forgotten woman in history who inspired one of the greatest writers of American literature.As a sensitive, artistic young woman, Sophia Peabody is discouraged from pursuing a woman's traditional roles of marriage and motherhood. But from their first meeting, she and Nathaniel Hawthorne begin an intense romantic partnership. Together, they cross continents, raise children, and experience all the beauty and tragedy of life fully lived. Sophia's vivid journals and masterful paintings inspire Nathaniel's writing. But their children's needs and personal losses fuel a perennial tug-of-war between Sophia's domestic duties and her own desires.Spanning the years from the 1830s to the Civil War, and moving from Massachusetts to England, Portugal, and Italy, The House of Hawthorne explores the story of a woman, forgotten by history, who inspired one of the greatest writers of American literature...Includes a Readers Guide

The manuscript of this novel was discovered by John J. Healey in a box left by his grandfather, Professor Vincent P. Healey, after his death. This engaging work of fiction is a romantic account in which four iconic figures of American Letters play a leading role. In the summer of 1851 Herman Melville was finishing Moby Dick on his family farm in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. Surrounded by his mother, sisters and pregnant wife, it was a calm and productive season until his neighbor Nathaniel Hawthorne lured him to Amherst. There they met twenty-year-old Emily Dickinson and her brother Austin. On a whim the two distinguished authors invited the Dickinson siblings to accompany them on a trip to Boston and New York. In Manhattan they met journalist Walt Whitman and William Johnson, a runaway slave, and it was there, despite their efforts to control it, that Emily and Herman fell in love. This, for the first time, is their story.

Mark Twain is in merry old England to see his family. Wentworth Cabot, Twain's assistant, is looking forward to seeing the sights, and hopefully finding some peace and quiet -- when not helping his boss with a new lecture series. But peace is the last thing they find when they bump into Slippery Ed, a con man from New Orleans and an acquainatnce of Twain's. Ed convinces Twain and his family to attend a seance. The famed author is skeptical of'spooks.'But when another attendee is murdered, Twain must discover whether the killer is one of the flesh-and-blood members of the audience -- or a specter from the beyond!