The Word of the Speechless

Praise

“The late Peruvian writer’s knack for the uncanny is on display in these gripping stories culled from a body of work spanning 40 years . . . [T]hese pieces dig into the human psyche with sharpness and wit.” —Publishers Weekly

“Sometimes bleak, sometimes warily humorous . . . Ribeyro’s stories often offer unexpected twists, their characters mysteriously disappearing in a flurry of snow or puffs of smoke . . . A welcome selection of prose that introduces a Latin American master to English-language audiences.” —Kirkus

“A magnificent storyteller, one of the best of Latin America and probably of the Spanish language, unjustly not recognized as such.” —Mario Vargas Llosa

“Elegance in the formal design skillfully contains the chaotic lives of Ribeyro’s characters. As author, he strikes the required distance enabling him to situate best these refined tales in which shame, humiliation, unbridled lust, infatuation, or plain derangement throb just beneath the skin of his creations.” —Paddy Kehoe, RTÉ

“Ribeyro writes a painting, or linguistically paints a scene in which quiet gestures . . . communicate as much if not more than the textually explicit or the explicitly textual.” —Letras Hispanas

“Despite the downbeat nature of some of the stories, there is also a dry humour, particularly in stories which skewer societal norms and relationships . . . There are usually no happy endings for Ribeyro’s characters, but nevertheless the stories are absorbing, wonderful and unforgettable.” —Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

“The lives of these minor characters (victims of modernity), and their circumstances, give Ribeyro’s stories a unique perspective that will make you think twice about the untold stories of the cashier you always run into at the store. . . . Ribeyro portrays his characters with such affection, sympathy, and humor that you will not feel that their bad luck and misery is a tragedy.” —Christina Soto van der Plas, Public Books