Letters from Mom - Julio Cortazar

Letters from Mom by Julio Cortazar, translated by Magdalena Edwards / small 56-page paperback, 4.5 x 7 inches / ISBN 9781955190206 / published by Sublunary Editions

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Luis and Laura, an Argentine couple looking for a new beginning, settle in France, connected to their former home only through occasional letters from Luis’s mother in Buenos Aires. But when a name from the past appears in an otherwise unremarkable letter, it comes with a dark shadow. What emerges is a psychological study of grief swirling with guilt, equal parts love-triangle and ghost story.

“Letters from Mom” is one of Julio Cortázar’s most beloved short stories, part of the same collection (Las armas secretas) that gave us “Blow-up” and “At Your Service”. It is translated here into English for the first time.

Julio Cortázar (August 26, 1914–February 12, 1984) was an Argentine writer, teacher, and translator. One of the most original writers of his era, he combined elements of historical fiction and mystery with Surrealist tendencies and a penchant for distorting time. He is best remembered for his mastery of the short story form and the novel Hopscotch.

Magdalena Edwards is a writer, actor, and translator born in Santiago, Chile, and based in Los Angeles, California. Her translations from Spanish and Portuguese include the work of Clarice Lispector, Nicanor Parra, Raúl Zurita, Óscar Contardo, Silviano Santiago, Noemi Jaffe, and Marcia Tiburi. She writes the Translationships column for Hopscotch Translation.