The book of Emma Reyes : a memoir in correspondence

Resource Information

The work The book of Emma Reyes : a memoir in correspondence represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Randwick City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The book of Emma Reyes : a memoir in correspondence

Title remainder

a memoir in correspondence

Statement of responsibility

Emma Reyes ; translated with an introduction by Daniel Alarcón

Creator

• Reyes, Emma, 1919-2003

Contributor

• Alarcón, Daniel, 1977-

Author

• Reyes, Emma, 1919-2003

Translator

• Alarcón, Daniel, 1977-

Subject

• Girls -- Colombia -- Biography
• Poor children -- Colombia -- Biography
• Reyes, Emma, 1919-2003 -- Childhood and youth
• Reyes, Emma, 1919-2003 -- Correspondence
• Women artists -- Colombia -- Correspondence
• Artists -- Colombia -- Correspondence

Genre

• Correspondence
• Biography

Language

• eng
• spa
• eng

Summary

"A literary discovery: an extraordinary account, in the tradition of The House on Mango Street and Angela's Ashes, of a Colombian woman's harrowing childhood. This astonishing memoir of a childhood lived in extreme poverty in Latin America was hailed as an instant classic when first published in Colombia in 2012, nine years after the death of its author, who was encouraged in her writing by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Comprised of letters written over the course of thirty years, and translated and introduced by acclaimed Peruvian-American writer Daniel Alarcon, it describes in vivid, painterly detail the remarkable courage and limitless imagination of a young girl growing up with nothing. Emma was an illegitimate child, raised in a windowless room in Bogota with no water or toilet and only ingenuity to keep her and her sister alive. Abandoned by their mother, she and her sister moved to a Catholic convent housing 150 orphan girls, where they washed pots, ironed and mended laundry, scrubbed floors, cleaned bathrooms, sewed garments and decorative cloths for the nuns--and lived in fear of the Devil. Illiterate and knowing nothing of the outside world, Emma escaped at age nineteen, eventually coming to have a career as an artist and to befriend the likes of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera as well as European artists and intellectuals. Far from self-pitying, the portrait that emerges from this clear-eyed account inspires awe at the stunning early life of a gifted writer whose talent remained hidden for far too long"--Provided by publisher

Member of

• Memoria por correspondencia

Biography type

autobiography

Cataloging source

QRML

Dewey number

709.2

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

no index present

Language note

Translated from the Spanish

Literary form

non fiction

Target audience

adult