Imagine being flown to a new job at a luxury estate belonging to a fabulously rich but obnoxious Englishman, in the Catalonian mountains. This man's bizarre character is hard to handle, but he is paying you handsomely and you tolerate his rudeness and demands. Then imagine discovering that he is downright dangerous and now you are trapped. What would you do next? This is the crisis facing Max, an architect, and Katie, an expert on 16th-century history, in this hard-to-put-down story of intrigue and adventure. Packed with murder, robbery, romance and life-changing discoveries, Max and Katie are plunged into a race against time across Europe as a long-held secret that spans the centuries is revealed. Knowledge is a dangerous thing, but when the ability to rewrite history falls into the wrong hands, the total domination of a criminal mastermind becomes a frightening reality in this fast-paced mystery thriller. Building to a shocking and unforeseen conclusion, The Rosario will grip you until the very end.

"Since they shot her at point-blank range while she was being kissed, she confused the pain of love with that of death." Rosario Tijeras is the violent, violated character at the center of Jorge Franco's study of contrasts, set in self-destructing 1980s Medellín. Her very name-evoking the rosary, and scissors-bespeaks her conflict as a woman who becomes a contract killer to insulate herself from the random violence of the streets. Then she is shot, gravely wounded, and the circle of contradiction is closed. From the corridors of the hospital where Rosario is fighting for her life, Antonio, the narrator, waits to learn if she will recover. Through him, we reconstruct the friendship between the two, her love story with Emilio, and her life as a hitwoman. Rosario Tijeras has been recognized as an admirable continuation of a literary subject that was first treated by Gabriel García Márquez and then by Fernando Vallejo. A work in the Latin American social realist tradition, Rosario Tijeras is told in fast and vibrant prose and with poetic flourish.

Set in the highlands of the Mexican state of Chiapas, The Book of Lamentations tells of a fictionalized Mayan uprising that resembles many of the rebellions that have taken place since the indigenous people of the area were first conquered by European invaders five hundred years ago. With the panoramic sweep of a Diego Rivera mural, the novel weaves together dozens of plot lines, perspectives, and characters. Blending a wealth of historical information and local detail with a profound understanding of the complex relationship between victim and tormentor, Castellanos captures the ambiguities that underlie all struggles for power. A masterpiece of contemporary Latin American fiction from Mexico’s greatest twentieth-century woman writer, The Book of Lamentations was translated with an afterword by Ester Allen and introduction by Alma Guillermoprieto.

Thinker, writer, diplomat, feminist Rosario Castellanos was emerging as one of Mexico's major literary figures before her untimely death in 1974. This sampler of her work brings together her major poems, short fiction, essays, and a three-act play, The Eternal Feminine. Translated with fidelity to language and cultural nuance, many of these works appear here in English for the first time, allowing English-speaking readers to see the depth and range of Castellanos' work. In her introductory essay, "Reading Rosario Castellanos: Contexts, Voices, and Signs," Maureen Ahern presents the first comprehensive study of Castellanos' work as a sign or signifying system. This approach through contemporary semiotic theory unites literary criticism and translation as an integral semiotic process. Ahern reveals how Castellanos integrated women's images, bodies, voices, and texts to feminize her discourse and create a plurality of new signs/messages about women in Mexico. Describing this process in The Eternal Feminine, Castellanos observes, "...it's not good enough to imitate the models proposed for us that are answers to circumstances other than our own. It isn't even enough to discover who we are. We have to invent ourselves."

Imagine being flown to an isolated luxury estate belonging to a fabulously rich but obnoxious Englishman, high in the Catalonian mountains, for an extremely well-paid job. This man's obsessions, his mania and his total domination of his estate are hard to handle, but he is paying you handsomely for your services, and you tolerate his rudeness and demands. Then you discover that he is downright dangerous... and he knows... you know... and now you are trapped. What would you do next? This is the crisis facing Max, an architect, and Katie, an expert on 16th-century history, in this hard-to-put-down story of intrigue and adventure. Packed with murder, robbery, romance, hidden documents and life-changing discoveries, Max and Katie are plunged into a race against time across Europe as a long-held secret that spans centuries is revealed. Knowledge is a dangerous thing, but when wealth and power - and the ability to rewrite history - fall into the wrong hands, the total domination of a criminal mastermind becomes an ever-more frightening reality in this addictive, fast-paced mystery thriller. Building to a shocking and unforeseen conclusion, The Rosario will grip you until the very end.