Publisher's Synopsis
La nueva edición de un clásico en su centenario.Un clásico de la literatura latinoamericana del siglo XX, La vorágine de José Eustasio Rivera sigue al joven poeta Arturo Cova y a su amante Alicia cuando se fugan de Bogotá y se embarcan en una aventura a través de los variados y mágicos paisajes de Colombia. Tras quedar separado de Alicia en la selva amazónica, Arturo es testigo de la atroz condición a la que son sometidos los trabajadores obligados a extraer caucho de los árboles. Más relevante que nunca en su centenario, La vorágine no solo es una de las más perdurables representaciones del entorno natural en la literatura latinoamericana, sino que también funciona como una denuncia atemporal de las terribles violaciones de derechos humanos que tuvieron lugar durante el auge del caucho en la Amazonia. Una denuncia que sigue vigente en la actualidad.
"The most influential Colombian novel before Gabriel Garcìa Márquez."-Times Literary Supplement
A new translation of a Latin American classic, José Eustasio Rivera's The Vortex follows the young poet Arturo Cova and his lover, Alicia, as they elope from Bogotá and embark on an adventure through Colombia's varied and magical landscapes. When Alicia-pregnant, jealous, and more than a little fed up-disappears, it's up to Arturo, and his unstoppable ego, to follow and win her back. From the cattle ranches of the llanos to the dense jungle of the rainforest, accompanied by hucksters, cowboys, desperate souls, and a terrifying tide of ants, Arturo pursues his bride-to-be, and becomes an inadvertent witness to the appalling conditions suffered by workers forced or tricked into tapping rubber trees.
Inventive, funny, and wildly prescient about the human and environmental costs of extractive systems, The Vortex is both a denunciation of the horrific human-rights abuses that took place during the Amazonian rubber boom, and one of most enduring renderings of the natural environment in Latin American literature. 100 years after its publication, it remains full of verve, and ready to inspire and delight a new generation of readers and writers.
