Wow! eBook
Goya's Glass
Author(s): Monika Zgustova (Author)
- Publisher: THE FEMINIST PRESS CUNY
- Publication Date: 16 Aug. 2012
- Language: English
- Print length: 320 pages
- ISBN-10: 1558617973
- ISBN-13: 9781558617971
Book Description
The Duchess of Alba, known as Goya’s muse, recalls the passions of youth on her deathbed in the royal court of 18th century Madrid. A young woman defies the protocols of her arranged marriage and pursues love and the life of a published writer, until her readers condemn her as a danger to society in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nina Berberova escapes persecution during the Russian Revolution and flees to Paris, where the intelligentsia naively covet the promise of a Soviet Union. In worlds that rarely accomodate female desire, Goya’s Glass explores history’s guilty pleasures and passions.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“For Zgustova and her triad of women, the experience of exileso delicately rendered in Berberova’s lettersis as palpable as the struggle to survive beneath the weight of a repressive regime, as documented in Nemcová’s life story. Inhabiting the crossroad between history and imagination, Zgustova’s new novel is a tantalizing and powerful effort.” Publishers Weekly
A powerful testament to the determination of women to circumvent stifling societal strictures and boundaries.”
Booklist“Monika Zgustova’s concerns are close to my own: the fate of the individual in the hands of totalitarianism. She is an outstanding writer, whose fiction invokes the politics and culture of people throughout history.”
Václav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic“Three centuries, three solitudes, three unbridled passions, three indomitable womenMonika Zgustova is a born storyteller.
Goya’s Glass is a magnificent achievement.” Josef Skvorecky, author of The Engineer of Human SoulsThe portraits of three women of different nationalities and centuries in
Goya’s Glass reveal a unique voice that owes as much to Kundera as to Flaubert, to Hasek as to Tolstoy. Monika Zgustova is a perfect example of a writer without borders, whose literary creations include the cultures and languages that she has accumulated throughout her lifetime.” Juan Goytisolo, author of Exiled from Almost EverywhereAbout the Author
Monika Zgustová was born in Prague and lives in Barcelona. She has published seven books, including novels, short stories, a play, and a biography. Her novel The Silent Woman (2005) was one of two runners-up for the National Award for the Novel, given by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Zgustová has also received the Giutat de Barcelona and the Mercè Rodoreda awards in Spain, and the Gratias Agist Prize given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague. She has translated more than fifty books of Russian and Czech fiction and poetry, including the works of Milan Kundera and Vaclav Havel, into both Spanish and Catalan.
