Of Death and Beauty: A Novel by Barbara Grenfell Fairhead

whilst the gorgeous Magdalena Chavez and her , passionate son circulation into the small city of Las Madres, New Mexico, it doesn’t take lengthy for the discerning one of the townspeople to find that they're different. Magdalena is a teller of news that pride many, but in addition problem the assumptions of 1 and all. quickly the reader is seduced into an enchanted international within which the boundary among truth and fable is usually close to collapsing. the most characters needs to preserve a tough stability among opposing polarities—sacred and profane, forbidden hope and ruthless power—a stability that turns out to come back instinctively to the straightforward yet understanding population of Las Madres. Fairhead is completely at domestic during this atmosphere, evoking it with a mix of precision and lyrical depth. even if she is describing the tumult of a bullfight, the stillness of a piece of artwork or the large, cinematic splendour of the recent Mexico panorama, her voice is usually pitch ideal. because the identify indicates, it's a international of significant good looks, yet that very same name additionally warns us that we can't converse of good looks with no additionally conversing of demise. The Duende, that darkish wind that blows in the course of the international and touches the again of the neck at any time when loss of life is feasible, is rarely distant. BARBARA GRENFELL FAIRHEAD was once born within the united kingdom in 1939 and has lived in South Africa considering that 1948. She is an artist, sculptor, author, poet and lyricist for the band, crimson Earth & Rust. She has released books of poetry: And Now you've Leapt as much as Swallow the solar: 1997 and observe and Bead: The Presentation of a trip: 2001, and a brief tale: Raven’s Moon: 2001. Over a interval of two decades she visited New Mexico frequently to spend time in her casita just about Black Mesa. She lives in Cape city together with her associate, singer-songwriter, poet and editor, Jacques Coetzee. Of dying and wonder is her first novel.