One of The New York Times' 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. Global bestseller.

A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin.

With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians.

Readers will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how they'd ever overlooked her in the first place.

Perhaps, with the present collection, Lucia Berlin will begin to gain the attention she deserves. --Lydia Davis

Berlin probably deserved a Pulitzer Prize. --Dwight Garner, The New York Times

New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Named one of the Best Books of 2018 by The Boston Globe, Kirkus, and Lit Hub. Named a Fall Read by Buzzfeed, ELLE, TIME, Nylon, The Boston Globe, Vulture, Newsday, HuffPost, Bustle, The A.V. Club, The Millions, BUST, Reinfery29, Fast Company and MyDomaine.

A collection of previously uncompiled stories from the short-story master and literary sensation Lucia Berlin

In 2015, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published A Manual for Cleaning Women, a posthumous story collection by a relatively unknown writer, to wild, widespread acclaim. It was a New York Times bestseller; the paper's Book Review named it one of the Ten Best Books of 2015; and NPR, Time, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and other outlets gave the book rave reviews.

The book's author, Lucia Berlin, earned comparisons to Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Alice Munro, and Anton Chekhov. Evening in Paradise is a careful selection from Berlin's remaining stories--twenty-two gems that showcase the gritty glamour that made readers fall in love with her. From Texas to Chile, Mexico to New York City, Berlin finds beauty in the darkest places and darkness in the seemingly pristine. Evening in Paradise is an essential piece of Berlin's oeuvre, a jewel-box follow-up for new and old fans.

As the case with her fiction, Berlin's pieces here are as faceted as the brightest diamond. --Kristin Iversen, NYLON

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE. Named a Fall Read by Buzzfeed, Vulture, Newsday and HuffPost

A compilation of sketches, photographs, and letters, Welcome Home is an essential nonfiction companion to the stories by Lucia Berlin

Before Lucia Berlin died, she was working on a book of previously unpublished autobiographical sketches called Welcome Home. The work consisted of more than twenty chapters that started in 1936 in Alaska and ended (prematurely) in 1966 in southern Mexico. In our publication of Welcome Home, her son Jeff Berlin is filling in the gaps with photos and letters from her eventful, romantic, and tragic life.

From Alaska to Argentina, Kentucky to Mexico, New York City to Chile, Berlin's world was wide. And the writing here is, as we've come to expect, dazzling. She describes the places she lived and the people she knew with all the style and wit and heart and humor that readers fell in love with in her stories. Combined with letters from and photos of friends and lovers, Welcome Home is an essential nonfiction companion to A Manual for Cleaning Women and Evening in Paradise.

Este volumen, preparado en exclusiva por su hijo Jeff Berlin para los lectores en español, reúne quince relatos inéditos en nuestro idioma, diez de ellos publicados originalmente en sus libros de cuentos, pero no incluidos en Manual para mujeres de la limpieza ni en Una noche en el paraíso; algunos solo aparecidos en revistas, como el impactante «Suicidio , y otros totalmente inéditos, como «Manzanas , su
primer cuento, y «Las aves del templo . También, una serie de reveladores artículos, ensayos --entre los que se encuentra «Bloqueada -- y extractos de sus diarios nunca publicados. Jeff Berlin nos brinda información privilegiada sobre los textos y su génesis, además de un breve recorrido final por la vida de Lucia.

Como escribe Sara Mesa en el prólogo que abre este libro único, «leer estos textos inéditos es asistir a la transustanciación de la vida en ficción. [...] Un privilegio . La emoción, la ternura, la ironía teñida de dolor y melancolía, la vida misma retratada con su estilo inconfundible, y los temas que le son tan propios: el amor, la maternidad, el sexo, la amistad y rivalidad entre mujeres, la literatura y, como nunca antes, la muerte se dan cita en estas páginas que nos invitan a descubrir o redescubrir a quien, tras años de injusto olvido, es hoy una autora de culto a la altura de Carver y Bukowski, reverenciada por la prensa, los libreros, los escritores y los lectores.

«Lucia Berlin pasó su vida en la oscuridad. Ahora se la reverencia como a un genio literario . -Brigit Katz, The New York Times

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Reading Lucia Berlin was like discovering a kindred spirit. -Pedro Almodóvar, Babelia

This volume, curated for Spanish-language readers by the author's son, Jeff Berlin, is a compilation of fifteen stories, ten published originally in short story collections but not included in Manual para mujeres de la limpieza [The Cleaning Women's Manual] or Una noche en el paraíso [A Night in Paradise]; some printed in magazines, including the powerful Suicidio [Suicide]; and others not seen before, such as Manzanas [Apples], her first story, and Las aves del templo [The Temple Birds]. Complementing them is a selection of articles and essays, among them the revealing Bloqueada [Blocked], and extracts of the author's never-before published diaries. Jeff Berlin provides insider information about the texts and their genesis, as well as a brief overview of Lucia's life.

As Sara Mesa writes in her prologue to this unique collection, reading these never-before published texts is to witness the transubstantiation of life into fiction [...] A privilege. Emotion, tenderness, irony tinged with pain and melancholy; life itself, recounted in Berlin's unmistakable style; and the topics characteristic of her writing - love, motherhood, sex, female friendships and rivalries, literature and, more than ever, death - come together in these pages, inviting us to discover (or rediscover, as the case may be) an author who, after years of undeserved neglect, now ranks as a cult figure the likes of Carver and Bukowski, revered by critics, booksellers, fellow writers and readers.

Lucia Berlin spent her life in obscurity. She is now recognized as a literary genius. - Brigit Katz, The New York Times

Tras años de injusto olvido, Alfaguara se suma al fenómeno editorial del descubrimiento de Lucia Berlin, el secreto mejor guardado de la literatura estadounidense, una auténtica revolución literaria. XVII Premi Llibreter 2016. Libro del Año según Babelia. Una revelación literaria: el secreto mejor guardado de la literatura estadounidense.

Manual para mujeres de la limpieza reúne los mejores textos de la legendaria escritora de relatos Lucia Berlin, uno de los secretos mejor guardados de la literatura estadounidense. Con su inigualable toque de humor y melancolía, Berlin crea verdaderos milagros con episodios del día a día.

Las mujeres de sus cuentos están desorientadas pero, al mismo tiempo, son fuertes, inteligentes y, sobre todo, extraordinariamente reales. Son autoestopistas, duras trabajadoras, malas cristianas. Ríen, lloran, beben. Sobreviven en un mundo de jockeys, doctores y telefonistas con un ingenio propio de Lorrie Moore y la agudeza de Raymond Carver.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

One of the New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

The book that has inspired Almodóvar's next film, which will star and be produced by Cate Blanchett

One of The New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of 2015 I have always had faith that the best writers will rise to the top, like cream, sooner or later, and will become exactly as well-known as they should be-their work talked about, quoted, taught, performed, filmed, set to music, anthologized. Perhaps, with the present collection, Lucia Berlin will begin to gain the attention she deserves. -Lydia Davis.

A manual for cleaning women compiles the best work of the legendary shortstory writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians. Readers will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how they'd ever overlooked her in the first place.

One of The New York Times' 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. Global bestseller.

A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin.

With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians.

Readers will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how they'd ever overlooked her in the first place.

Perhaps, with the present collection, Lucia Berlin will begin to gain the attention she deserves. --Lydia Davis

«Ninguna autora ya fallecida aparece en las páginas con más vida que Berlin: divertida, oscura y enamorada del mundo. .-Kirkus Reviews
Vuelve la autora de Manual para mujeres de la limpieza, el gran redescubrimiento de la literatura de los últimos años.

«Lucia Berlin puede ser la mejor escritora de la que hayas oído hablar nunca.
Publishers Weekly

Hace pocos años, una colección de relatos de una escritora ya desaparecida y casi olvidada sacudió el panorama literario mundial. Era Manual para mujeres de la limpieza, de Lucia Berlin, quien alcanzó entonces el lugar que le correspondía: se convirtió en la escritora favorita de la prensa y los lectores, el título fue libro del año para los medios y su peculiar estilo se vio comparado con el de Raymond Carver o Charles Bukowski.

La singular capacidad de Berlin para representar la belleza y el dolor de las rutinas de nuestra vida, su extraordinaria honestidad, su magnetismo, la familiaridad de sus personajes, su sutil pero abrumadora melancolía... Todo ello se encuentra nuevamente y con gran intensidad en Una noche en el paraíso, una compilación que es un acontecimiento y un regalo para todos los lectores ansiosos por seguir leyendo al indiscutible fenómeno que es Lucia Berlin. Este volumen indispensable, preparado por su hijo, Mark Berlin, contiene veintidós relatos inéditos en español y está lleno de obras maestras de la literatura reciente.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Berlin probably deserved a Pulitzer Prize. --Dwight Garner, The New York Times

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE. Named a Fall Read by Buzzfeed, ELLE, TIME, Nylon, The Boston Globe, Vulture, Newsday, HuffPost, Bustle, The A.V. Club, The Millions, BUST, Reinfery29, Fast Company and MyDomaine

A collection of previously uncompiled stories from the short-story master and literary sensation Lucia Berlin

In 2015, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published A Manual for Cleaning Women, a posthumous story collection by a relatively unknown writer, to wild, widespread acclaim. It was a New York Times bestseller; the paper's Book Review named it one of the Ten Best Books of 2015; and NPR, Time, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and other outlets gave the book rave reviews.

The book's author, Lucia Berlin, earned comparisons to Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Alice Munro, and Anton Chekhov. Evening in Paradise is a careful selection from Berlin's remaining stories―twenty-two gems that showcase the gritty glamour that made readers fall in love with her. From Texas to Chile, Mexico to New York City, Berlin finds beauty in the darkest places and darkness in the seemingly pristine. Evening in Paradise is an essential piece of Berlin's oeuvre, a jewel-box follow-up for new and old fans.