 First edition in Spanish (publ. Sexto Piso) | |
| Author | Valeria Luiselli |
|---|---|
| Original title | Los ingrávidos |
| Translator | Christina MacSweeney |
| Language | Spanish |
| Publisher | Sexto Piso |
| Publication date | 2011 |
| Publication place | Mexico |
| Published in English | 2014 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 152 |
| ISBN | 978-6077781424 |
Faces in the Crowd is a 2011 novel by Mexican author Valeria Luiselli, originally under the title Los ingrávidos (literally, "The Weightless"). Christina MacSweeney's English translation was published by Coffee House Press in 2014.
Plot Summary
The novel chronicles three intersecting narrative realities. The first narrative is set in Mexico City and follows a young mother and writer as her marriage may or may not be beginning to fall apart.
The second narrative is set in New York, and follows the adventures of the same woman when she was a young translator living a Bohemian life who becomes obsessed with the obscure, early 20th-century Mexican poet Gilberto Owen.
The third narrative follows Owen, the Mexican poet, in Harlem in the 1920s during the Harlem Renaissance, and then many years later, in Philadelphia at the end of his life.
Reception
The book has received acclaim for its unique reorientation of the invented spaces of language and identity. It received the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.
References
- "Faces in the Crowd". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- "Smashing Snow Globes: A Writer On Essays, Novels And Translation". NPR.org. All Things Considered (National Public Radio). Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- Tobar, Hector. "Valeria Luiselli's 'Faces in the Crowd' seeks poets in a city". latimes.com. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- Houser, Megan. "Valeria Luiselli's Sidewalks and Faces in the Crowd". Music & Literature.
- Holland, Mina (5 May 2012). "Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli – review". the Guardian. The Guardian. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- Zuckerman, Jeffrey. "Porous to the World Around Me: The Writing of Valeria Luiselli - Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- Kellogg, Carolyn (18 April 1015). "The winners of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes are ..." latimes.com. Retrieved 2018-06-27.