Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was
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"The history of an imaginary empire in a series of tales that adopt the voice of a marketplace storyteller. . . . While the point of each tale eludes paraphrase, the cumulative burden is the imperfectibility of human society . . . Le Guin's translation, which ranges from blunt to elegant to oracular, seems like the ideal medium for this grim if inescapable message."
- New York Times Book Review
"A novel that evokes weighty matters lightly and speaks of self-evident wisdom while itself remaining mysterious."
-- Washington Post"The dreamy, ancient voice is not unlike Le Guin's, and this collection should appeal to her fans as well as to those of literary fantasy and Latin American fiction." --Library Journal (starred review)
"There's a very modern undercurrent to the Kalpa empire, with tales focusing on power (in a political sense) rather than generic moral lessons. Her mythology is consistent--wide in scope, yet not overwhelming. The myriad names of places and people can be confusing, almost Tolkeinesque in their linguistic originality. But the stories constantly move and keep the book from becoming overwhelming. Gorodischer has a sizeable body of work to be discovered, with eighteen books yet to reach English readers, and this is an impressive introduction." --Review of Contemporary Fiction
"Borges and Cortáaacute;zar are alive and well." --Bridge Magazine
"Those looking for offbeat literary fantasy will welcome Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was, by Argentinean writer Angéeacute;lica Gorodischer. Translated from the Spanish by Ursula Le Guin, this is the first appearance in English of this prize-winning South American fantasist." --Publishers Weekly
"It's always difficult to wrap up a rave review without babbling redundant praises. This time I'll simply say 'Buy this Book!'" --Locus
Praise for the Spanish-language editions of Kalpa
Imperial:
"Angéeacute;lica Gorodischer, both from without and within the
novel, accomplishes the indispensable function Salman Rushdie says the
storyteller must have: not to let the old tales die out; to constantly
renew them. And she well knows, as does that one who met the Great
Empress, that storytellers are nothing more and nothing less than free
men and women. And even though their freedom might be dangerous, they
have to get the total attention of their listeners and, therefore, put
the proper value on the art of storytelling, an art that usually gets in
the way of those who foster a forceful oblivion and prevent the winds
of change." -Carmen Perilli, La Gaceta, Tucuman
"At a time when books
are conceived and published to be read quickly, with divided attention
in the din of the subway or the car, this novel is to be tasted with
relish, in peace, in moderation, chewing slowly each and every one of
the stories that make it up, and digesting it equally slowly so as to
properly assimilate it all." --Rodolfo Martinez
"A vast, cyclical
filigree . . . Gorodischer reaches much farther than the common run of
stories about huge empires, maybe because she wasn't interested in them
to begin with, and enters the realm of fable, legend, and
allegory." --Luis G. Prado, Gigamesh, Barcelona
"The history of an imaginary empire in a series of tales that adopt the voice of a marketplace storyteller. . . . While the point of each tale eludes paraphrase, the cumulative burden is the imperfectibility of human society . . . Le Guin's translation, which ranges from blunt to elegant to oracular, seems like the ideal medium for this grim if inescapable message."
-- New York Times Book Review
"A novel that evokes weighty matters lightly and speaks of self-evident wisdom while itself remaining mysterious."
-- Washington Post"The dreamy, ancient voice is not unlike Le Guin's, and this collection should appeal to her fans as well as to those of literary fantasy and Latin American fiction." --Library Journal (starred review)
"There's a very modern undercurrent to the Kalpa empire, with tales focusing on power (in a political sense) rather than generic moral lessons. Her mythology is consistent--wide in scope, yet not overwhelming. The myriad names of places and people can be confusing, almost Tolkeinesque in their linguistic originality. But the stories constantly move and keep the book from becoming overwhelming. Gorodischer has a sizeable body of work to be discovered, with eighteen books yet to reach English readers, and this is an impressive introduction." --Review of Contemporary Fiction
"Borges and Cortázar are alive and well." --Bridge Magazine
"Those looking for offbeat literary fantasy will welcome Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was, by Argentinean writer Angélica Gorodischer. Translated from the Spanish by Ursula Le Guin, this is the first appearance in English of this prize-winning South American fantasist." --Publishers Weekly
"It's always difficult to wrap up a rave review without babbling redundant praises. This time I'll simply say 'Buy this Book!'" --Locus
Praise for the Spanish-language editions of Kalpa
Imperial:
"Angélica Gorodischer, both from without and within the
novel, accomplishes the indispensable function Salman Rushdie says the
storyteller must have: not to let the old tales die out; to constantly
renew them. And she well knows, as does that one who met the Great
Empress, that storytellers are nothing more and nothing less than free
men and women. And even though their freedom might be dangerous, they
have to get the total attention of their listeners and, therefore, put
the proper value on the art of storytelling, an art that usually gets in
the way of those who foster a forceful oblivion and prevent the winds
of change." --Carmen Perilli, La Gaceta, Tucuman
"At a time when books
are conceived and published to be read quickly, with divided attention
in the din of the subway or the car, this novel is to be tasted with
relish, in peace, in moderation, chewing slowly each and every one of
the stories that make it up, and digesting it equally slowly so as to
properly assimilate it all." --Rodolfo Martinez
"A vast, cyclical
filigree . . . Gorodischer reaches much farther than the common run of
stories about huge empires, maybe because she wasn't interested in them
to begin with, and enters the realm of fable, legend, and
allegory." --Luis G. Prado, Gigamesh, Barcelona
