Waves of the East River - Tapa blanda

Waves of the East River By Mario Bencastro. From the author of A Shot in the Cathedral, Odyssey to the North, and Portable Paradise. Musical, great in scope, and anchored by vivid imagery, Waves of the East River recounts the lyrical passage through lower Manhattan of an exile who, upon being freed at a Brooklyn pier, receives three shares of Fortune, Drama and Faith, which he must invest in Wall Street. Waves of the East River revives the author’s memories of the river and the financial district, which inspired him to create this poetic and personal mythology. Waves of the East River is a poem in sixteen cantos that combines historic places and events to bring to life fictitious and biblical characters, with epigraphs that evoke the homage that Walt Whitman and Federico García Lorca paid to the East River. “Waves of the East River is an extraordinary text that manages to convene a richness of registers and the many voices of Whitman.” – Rei Berroa, George Mason University, USA.

Mario Bencastro (El Salvador, 1949), is an award-winning novelist, painter and poet. He took up the brush and canvas as the first outlet for his artistic expression, garnering him remarkable success from an early age, with his works gracing the walls of major galleries and museums. He has written novels, short stories, plays and poetry. Crossroad, “a portrayal of modern existential crisis,” was chosen for the International Festival of Theater, part of the 1989 Bicentennial celebration of the foundation of Georgetown University in Washington, DC. A Shot in the Cathedral (1990) was a Finalist in the International Diana y Novedades Literary Prize in Mexico, 1989. Odyssey to the North was a Finalist in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, USA, 1999. “A heartfelt story of political oppression and exile, credible and quite moving.” (Kirkus). Portable Paradise (2010) is a stirring collection of short stories, poetry, and a short novel that makes real the impact of war and the need to leave one’s home because of violence and poverty. The Mansion of Oblivion (La mansión del olvido), won the International Latino Book Awards, USA, 2016, for “Best Historical Fiction Novel”, and was featured by Library Journal as “Starred Title - Essential purchase for all library collections.” In the present work, Waves of the East River, the author revives memories of the river and the financial district of New York, which inspired him to create a poetic and personal mythology, a lyrical voyage through historic places and events that bring to life fictitious and biblical characters, following the steps of Walt Whitman and Federico García Lorca.