Habanas

“I hate literary letters, carefully drafted, copied over and over; I sit at the typewriter and let the vast river of thoughts and affection flow,” Julio Cortázar wrote in 1942: a statement he lived by. In these letters, which read like a personal diary, autobiography and «binnacle» for his books, we glimpse the making of an unmistakable style. Ever-inquisitive, Cortázar delves into every aspect of his efforts as a writer, his political restlessness and personal ups-and-downs. He sums up each day, comments on what he reads, hears and sees, and recounts his adventures as a translator,...

Leung Ping Kwan brought as much talent and inspiration to the writing of his short stories as he did to his poems. 'I have drawn on magical realism to explore the absurdity of Hong Kong,' he wrote of the story 'See Mun and the Dragon' (1975) in which we find him using a simple, clipped style. The later story 'Drowned Souls' (2007) was written in a more symbolic, lyrical and more complex manner. Although the two stories are separated by over thirty years, and are in many ways so very different, dragons play a prominent part in both. The dragon has always been a fascinating creature, a complex...

El siglo xxi no ha traído ni la prosperidad ni la estabilidad ni la libertad anunciadas. Las sucesivas crisis han hecho saltar por los aires la confianza en nuestro modelo de vida. Nunca la persona ha sido menos protagonista de su futuro. Los gobiernos y los mercados redoblan las apuestas con cada recesión, hipotecando a las próximas generaciones sin rubor. Aprovechando el desconcierto y el miedo reinante, se manipula la verdad con dogmas sociales delirantes. Este ensayo aboga por la libertad y la autonomía personal para recuperar la confianza en el ser humano y en su probada capacidad...

The Fountainhead, which became one of the most influential and widely read philosophical novels of the twentieth century, made Ayn Rand famous. An impassioned proponent of reason, rational self-interest, individualism, and laissez-faire capitalism, she expressed her unique views in numerous works of fiction and non-fiction that have been brought together for the first time in this one-of-a-kind volume.Containing excerpts from all her novels--including Atlas Shrugged, Anthem, and We The Living--The Ayn Rand Reader is a perfect introduction for those who have never read Rand, and provides...