Ischia

Ischia is a portrait of an unnamed narrator and protagonist who, along with her friends, wanders through the margins of different cities, especially Buenos Aires, searching for something they don't know and seems unfathomable.

An intricate, gutsy, and raw novel, Ischia is populated with outsiders who navigate the vicissitudes of life in Argentina and the world. Ischia, the first-person female narrator, is the youngest in a family of seven brothers and relates her experiences as she waits for a ride to the Argentine international airport. Told through the dizzying would-have-could-have of conditionals, Ischia overlaps the past, present, and future of three young characters defined by lack of certainty or expectations.

These three lives unfold between disenchantment and humor, and the narration transports the readers into a universe of memories, desires, and dreams. The novel advances lyrically through themes both solemn and lighthearted, shaping the contours of imaginaries, hilarious, and sometimes even surreal experiences.

Publisher: Deep Vellum Publishing
Published: 03/14/2023
Pages: 252
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9781646052141


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 11/21/2022
Kirkus Reviews 12/01/2022

About the Author

Gisela Heffes is a Professor of Latin American Literature and Culture as well as a writer, ecocritic, and public intellectual with a particular focus on literature, media, and the environment in Latin America. She is the author of the novella Sophie La Belle (2016), the novel Cocodrilos en la noche (2020), and the bilingual poetry collection El cero móvil de su boca / The Zero Mobile of Its Mouth (2020). She currently resides in Houston, Texas.

Grady C. Wray teaches Latin American literature, Spanish, and Translation at the University of Oklahoma. He published the first bilingual critical edition of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz' Devotional Exercises. His translations of fiction and poetry include The Mobile Zero of Its Mouth by Gisela Heffes (Katakana editores, 2020), 2323 Stratford Ave. by Marcelo Rioseco (Valparaiso Editions USA, 2020), and Series 201 by Luisa Valenzuela (2017).