Poetics of Wonder: Passage to Mogador
AUTHOR
Alberto Ruy-Sánchez
TRANSLATOR
Rhonda Dahl Buchanan
Poetics of Wonder: Passage to Mogador is a companion volume to Alberto Ruy-Sánchez's celebrated quintet of Mogador novels, offering readers a lyrical primer on the mythical Moroccan city of desire. Structured as nine chapters containing nine texts each—81 flashes of insight—this genre-defying work blends poetry, short tales, and philosophical reflection. Through the voice of Hassiba revealing secrets to her lover, Ruy-Sánchez explores the nature of desire and wonder in what has been called the most moving and eloquent expression of wonder in contemporary literature. Written on the skin like a ritual tattoo of desire, this book serves as both a standalone literary experience and an essential guide to understanding the sensual, mystical world of Mogador.
Reviews
"The most moving, beautiful, and eloquent expression of wonder in literature. If there has been anything new in recent literature of any type it is this undefinable book: poetry, short tales, and intelligence in each paragraph. A delight."
–Jeanne Teixidor
Rhonda Dahl Buchanan, Professor Emerita of Spanish at the University of Louisville, has translated fiction by authors from Latin America and Spain. She received an NEA Literature Fellowship in 2006 for the translation of the Mexican writer Alberto Ruy Sánchez’s novel Los jardines secretos de Mogador. Her translations of Ruy Sánchez’s novels The Secret Gardens of Mogador: Voices of the Earth and Poetics of Wonder: Passage to Mogador were published by White Pine Press. Her other published translations include works by the Argentine authors Mempo Giardinelli, Tununa Mercado, Ana María Shua, and Perla Suez, and the Spanish poet Fernando Operé.
Alberto Ruy-Sánchez is an award-winning writer and editor who has authored thirty-two books of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. His works have been translated into fifteen languages. He has received international acclaim forQuinteto de Mogador, a series of five novels that explore the many facets of desire while extending a cultural bridge between his native Mexico and Morocco. His previously translated works in English include The Secret Gardens of Mogador: Voices of the Earth and The Poetics of Wonder.