Mirrors (stories Of Almost Everyone)

By (author) Galeano, Eduardo; Translated by Fried Mark
Short description/annotation:
This exhilarating single-volume history of the whole world from the Iron Age to the Information Age, by one of Latin America''s greatest living writers, gives a voice back to the voiceless, and lets the demonized, the starved and the discarded speak their History.
Description:
In Mirrors, Galeano smashes aside the narrative of conventional history and arranges the shards into a new pattern, to reveal the past in radically altered form. From the Garden of Eden to twenty-first-century cityscapes, we glimpse fragments in the lives of those who have been overlooked by traditional histories: the artists, the servants, the gods and the visionaries, the black slaves who built the White House, and the women who were bartered for dynastic ends
Review quote:
There is a mysterious power in Galeano''s storytelling. He uses his craft to invade the privacy of the reader''s mind, to persuade him or her to read and to continue reading to the very end, to surrender to the charm of his writing and the power of his idealism
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To publish Eduardo Galeano is to publish the enemy: the enemy of lies, indifference, above all of forgetfulness. His tenderness is devastating, his truthfulness furious
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Brightly coloured commonplace book of a kind that was once popular in our culture but has now almost disappeared ... The beauty of Galeano''s book lies not just in the eclectic choice of stories he tells, but more especially in his elegant, pared-down prose, sensitively translated by Mark Fried, with never an unnecessary word, nor one out of place ... Galeano''s book is pure delight - a cornucopia of wonderful stories. It should be by everyone''s bedside - and in every Christmas stocking
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Galeano charts the rise and fall of civilisations with compassion and wry humour ... [He is] an enchanting interpreter of history and its resonances, and a poetic voice of political dissent
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In his most ambitious work since Memory of Fire Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano retells the history of the world from the point of view of the powerless, the voiceless and the dispossessed. As in Memory of Fire, he presents his story as a series of short vignettes, one longer than a page and most a good deal shorter; their cumulative effect is shattering
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Galeano''s voice lends Mirrors its coherence, transforms the book into a patchwork of particular feats and foibles picked from our long and common history
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It is no criticism - rather the reverse - to say of Galeano''s book that it defies categorisation ... In earlier age, the author might have cast this history as a great epic poem. It has that feel
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[In Mirrors] Galeano widens his scope to nothing less than an alternative history of humankind, achieving this monumental task with rare grace, wit and passion for truth ... With a storyteller''s flourish, he invites us to look past official history and into our own real nature and past ... Galeano''s skill as a writer and his fine sense of historical irony make this both an easy-to-read, funny and profound book
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An endlessly fascinating book, a mirrored cabinet of curiosities in which every item reflects every other
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Composed of miscellaneous stories about landmark historical events told by people whom the history books have forgotten, this is a book that is bound to grow in stature. It is frequently recommended by customers to us
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Galeano shares with George Orwell the very best of traits: an intellectual honesty and a belief in human values, not to mention a clear writing style. That is why Eduardo Galeano matters
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Remarkable cond