Talk by Frederick de Armas

Please, join us on April 5, 2017, at 4.00 p.m. for a talk by the acclaimed critic Frederick de Armas, who will be discussing his last novel, El abra de Yurumí: obra basada en un manuscrito de Ana Galdós (2016).

El abra del Yurumí takes place in Havana, in October 1958. Carolina Vives wakes up having dreamt of a beautiful painting, and decides to find it in order to hang it on one of the walls of her beach house. As she searches for this mysterious artwork, her life is at risk. A countess, a French governess, the sister of a hateful secret police commander, and a rebel of Vietnamese origin coexist with Carolina in a stage where legends, mysteries, and unnamed violence reach the highest spheres of society in Havana. The novel captures the tensions of a critical moment in Cuban history through the perspective of five women with very different life goals, but who shape a similar story, a same thread from which nobody can escape.

Frederick de Armas is the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities, Spanish Literature, and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago.

This event, which will be held at White Gravernor 206, is sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Georgetown University.