An ultra-vivid, carnivalesque memoir of Jennifer Clement's early life from 60s Mexico to 80s New York City - the prequel to Widow Basquiat

Growing up in '60s Mexico City, Jennifer Clement lived next door to Frida Kahlo's house. It was an unorthodox and bohemian childhood, living alongside artists, communists, revolutionaries and poets, and one that allowed an awakening of creative freedom and curiosity about the world.

Leaving behind the revolutions in Latin America for the burgeoning counter-culture scene in '80s New York, Clement quickly became a fixture on the art scene, inhabiting the world of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Colette Lumiere and William Burroughs, and frequenting The Mudd Club, Danceteria and Studio 54.

From the author of cult classic Widow Basquiat, this memoir is a tale of two cities and their artists. It recreates the fury, ecstasy and danger that made '70s Mexico City and '80s New York two of the greatest places to be young, free and alive.

The beautifully written, deeply affecting story of Jean-Michel Basquiat's partner, her past, and their life together

An NPR Best Book of the Year Selection

New York City in the 1980s was a mesmerizing, wild place. A hotbed for hip hop, underground culture, and unmatched creative energy, it spawned some of the most significant art of the 20th century. It was where Jean-Michel Basquiat became an avant-garde street artist and painter, swiftly achieving worldwide fame. During the years before his death at the age of 27, he shared his life with his lover and muse, Suzanne Mallouk.

A runaway from an unhappy home in Canada, Suzanne first met Jean-Michel in a bar on the Lower East Side in 1980. Thus began a tumultuous and passionate relationship that deeply influenced one of the most exceptional artists of our time.

In emotionally resonant prose, award-winning author Jennifer Clement tells the story of the passion that swept Suzanne and Jean-Michel into a short-lived, unforgettable affair. A poetic interpretation like no other, Widow Basquiat is an expression of the unrelenting power of addiction, obsession and love.

An ultra-vivid, carnivalesque memoir of Jennifer Clement's early life from 60s Mexico to 80s New York City - the prequel to Widow Basquiat

'Clement has lived a life like no other, and made of it a shimmering mosaic, a masterpiece, which is this book' Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less

Growing up in 1970s Mexico City, Jennifer Clement lived next door to Frida Kahlo's house. It was a bohemian childhood, living alongside artists, communists, revolutionaries and poets, which allowed an awakening of creative freedom and curiosity about the world.

Leaving behind Latin America for the burgeoning counter-culture scene in '80s New York, Clement inhabited the world of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Colette Lumiere and William Burroughs. Spanning two great cities, The Promised Party explores what it means to be young, free and alive.

The haunting novel of love and survival that inspired Mexico's official submission for International Feature Film--now shortlisted for the 94th Academy Awards(R) and streaming on Netflix

Prayers for the Stolen gives us words for what we haven't had words for before, like something translated from a dream in a secret language. . . . Beguiling, and even crazily enchanting.--Francisco Goldman, New York Times Book Review

FINALIST FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER PRIZE - AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

Ladydi Garcia Martínez is fierce, funny, and smart. She was born into a world where being a girl is a dangerous thing. In the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, women must fend for themselves, as their men have left to seek opportunities elsewhere. Here in the shadow of the drug war, bodies turn up on the outskirts of the village to be taken back to the earth by scorpions and snakes. School is held sporadically, when a volunteer can be coerced away from the big city for a semester. In Guerrero the drug lords are kings, and mothers disguise their daughters as sons, or when that fails they make them ugly--cropping their hair, blackening their teeth, anything to protect them from the rapacious grasp of the cartels. And when the black SUVs roll through town, Ladydi and her friends burrow into holes in their backyards like animals, tucked safely out of sight.

While her mother waits in vain for her husband's return, Ladydi and her friends dream of a future that holds more promise than mere survival, finding humor, solidarity, and fun in the face of so much tragedy. When Ladydi is offered work as a nanny for a wealthy family in Acapulco, she seizes the chance, and finds her first taste of love with a young caretaker there. But when a local murder tied to the cartel implicates a friend, Ladydi's future takes a dark turn. Despite the odds against her, this spirited heroine's resilience and resolve bring hope to otherwise heartbreaking conditions.

An illuminating and affecting portrait of women in rural Mexico, and a stunning exploration of the hidden consequences of an unjust war, Prayers for the Stolen is an unforgettable story of friendship, family, and determination.

«Todas las canciones surgen en sueños, según los pueblos xavante. Se accede a las canciones despertando a los niños con la esperanza de escuchar una canción que podrían estar soñando.

En la esperada precuela de La viuda Basquiat, Jennifer Clement demuestra que una verdadera fiesta tiene en su núcleo lo mismo que una verdadera rebelión: una comunidad se organiza para abrir un paréntesis y crear nuevas reglas, con el fin de hacer de la vida una mejor experiencia. Quizá por eso las grandes revoluciones políticas han implicado siempre grandes metamorfosis culturales.

Dividido en dos vastos territorios, el de una infancia en la Ciudad de México y el de una juventud en la ciudad de Nueva York, La fiesta prometida es un viaje de la memoria que nos transporta a un mundo en el que la complicidad entre amigos y la improvisación ante lo inesperado son claves revolucionarias. De la mano de las presencias fantasmagóricas de muchos artistas y escritores, como Julio Cortázar, William Burroughs, Frida Kahlo y Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jennifer Clement despliega lo mejor de sus habilidades verbales para recrear una época previa a la legalización del neoliberalismo en el norte de América Latina.

El asombro frente a lo cotidiano, la potencia de una noche en la pista de baile y la escritura coral de los grafitis en el metro son algunos de los talismanes para cultivar la libertad que el lector encontrará en estas páginas, de las que saldrá poseído por un espíritu rebelde y soberano para no sentirse solo nunca más.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

An ultra-vivid, carnivalesque memoir of Jennifer Clement's early life from 60s Mexico to 80s New York City - the prequel to Widow Basquiat

Growing up in '60s Mexico City, Jennifer Clement lived next door to Frida Kahlo's house. It was an unorthodox and bohemian childhood, living alongside artists, communists, revolutionaries and poets, and one that allowed an awakening of creative freedom and curiosity about the world.

Leaving behind the revolutions in Latin America for the burgeoning counter-culture scene in '80s New York, Clement quickly became a fixture on the art scene, inhabiting the world of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Colette Lumiere and William Burroughs, and frequenting The Mudd Club, Danceteria and Studio 54.

From the author of cult classic Widow Basquiat, this memoir is a tale of two cities and their artists. It recreates the fury, ecstasy and danger that made '70s Mexico City and '80s New York two of the greatest places to be young, free and alive.

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD - Fortified with wit and tenderness . . . Gun Love potently illuminates a puzzled land.--O: The Oprah Magazine

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TIME - SHORTLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE

The searing, unforgettable story of a young girl's resilience, by the award-winning author of Prayers for the Stolen

Pearl's mother took her away from her family just weeks after she was born, and drove off to central Florida determined to begin a new life for herself and her daughter--in the parking lot next to a trailer park. Pearl grew up in the front seat of their '94 Mercury, while her mother lived in the back. Despite their hardships, mother and daughter both adjusted to life, making friends with the residents of the trailers and creating a deep connection to each other. All around them, Florida is populated with gun owners--those hunting alligators for sport, those who want to protect their families, and those who create a sense of danger.

Written in a gorgeous lyric all its own, Gun Love is the story of a tough but optimistic young woman growing up in contemporary America, in the midst of its harrowing love affair with firearms.

Jennifer Clement studied English Literature and Anthropology at New York University and French Literature in Paris. Clement is the author of the memoir 'Widow Basquiat', which made the UK Booksellers' Choice list, and a novel 'A True Story Based on Lies', which was a finalist in the Orange Prize for Fiction. She was awarded the Canongate Prize for New Writing in 2001, and is also the author of several books of poetry: 'The Next Stranger', 'Newton's Sailor', and 'Lady of the Broom', each published in bilingual editions in Mexico. Clement's work has been translated into eight languages. Canongate Books is publishing her next novel 'The Poison That Fascinates' in 2008. Jennifer Clement lives in Mexico City and, with her sister Barbara Sibley, is co-director and -founder of the annual San Miguel Poetry Week. The present volume offers several new poems, the complete 'Lady of the Broom' sequence, plus selections from her two earlier books.

A True Story Based on Lies is a remarkable and original novel that addresses the universal issues of class discrimination, male oppression and female servitude through dual narratives ofspellbinding power.
Set in contemporary Mexico, the book charts the consequences of a sexual relationship between Leonora, a servant in the wealthy O'Connor home, and her master. When a child, Aura Olivia, is born from this union she is brought up as the daughter of the house. As the novel unfolds, the 'true' story gradually emerges.

A True Story Based on Lies is a remarkable novel dealing with universal issues of class discrimination, male oppression and female servitude through spellbinding dual narratives. Set in contemporary Mexico, the book examines the fallout from a sexual relationship between Leonora, a domestic servant to the wealthy O'Conner family, and the master of the house. When a child, Aura Olivia, is born from this relationship she is brought up as the daughter of the house. As the novel unfolds, the true story gradually emerges. We are delighted to reissue Clement's first novel, which was a finalist for the Orange Prize for Fiction and has been taken to the stage by Mexico's National Theatre Company as well as being staged in France and Italy.

An extraordinary novel that packs a massive weight of meaning into [its short span] and quietly unmasks the terrible consequences of mere thoughtlessness.

-Lisa Gee, Orange Prize citation

You would be forgiven for mistaking Clement's first novel for a book of poetry, such is its lyricism and lightness of touch; yet what we are given here is a narrative that not only pays tribute to Clement's background as a poet, but uses the tricks of the master storyteller to delight and engross. -The Times

A bold and innovative novel. The rich mixture of the outlandishly real and the hyperfabulistic has a certain superstitious power over the reader. Jennifer Clement employs poetry's ability to mirror thought... superbly drawn -Jean McNeil, The Times Literary Supplement

A True Story's poetry is obvious, simple, beautiful and clear, like liturgical music. -Tom Adair, The Scotsman

This is an unusual and graceful book that, in beautiful and precise prose, tells of unimaginable human suffering and manages, in an unexpected climax, to suggest at least the possibility of redemption. -The Internationalist

This is a rich, memorable, multilayered novel. -Publishers Weekly

Having been deserted by her mother as a baby, Emily now lives with her father in Mexico City, and works in the local orphanage. When a mysterious cousin, Santi, appears on their doorstep, he brings with him family secrets, and soon Emily finds desire and temptation have overturned her straightforward life forever. The Poison That Fascinates is an alluring fable forged in sensuous prose. Jennifer Clement conjures a world heavy with the weight of Mexican superstition, mythology and faith, where saintliness and mortal sin sit side by side. With this novel, Shearsman brings to its collection a unique work praised for Clement's prowess in creating a literary crime novel.

Libro en que se basa la película, Noche de Fuego / Prayers for the Stolen , selección de México para la edición 94 (2022) de los Premios Oscar.

Quién habla es Ladydi García Martínez, una chiquilla de ojos color café que vive en las montañas de Guerrero; una tierra sin maridos, sin padres y casi sin hermanos porque todos se han ido a buscar fortuna al otro lado y ninguno se ha molestado en volver.

Ése es el lugar donde lo mejor que le puede ocurrir a una niña es nacer fea, porque en cuanto los narcos tienen noticia de que una joven hermosa anda por ahí, acuden como buitres en busca de su presa. Ése es el pueblo donde ya nadie le reza a Dios porque ni de él se fían. Pese a todo, en ese infierno Ladydi crece rodeada de amigas que sueñan con un futuro más esperanzador que el mero sentido de sobrevivencia, y al lado de una madre entrañable capaz de robar, maldecir y reír cuando le viene en gana. Así, Jennifer Clement nos lleva a un lugar donde confluyen el humor y la desesperación, y las mujeres enfrentan las tragedias con solidaridad y dignidad.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

The book that inspired the movie Prayers for the Stolen, Mexico's selection for the 94th Academy Awards (Oscars 2022)

Ladydi Garcia Martínez is fierce, funny and smart.

She was born into a world where being a girl is a dangerous thing. In the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, women must fend for themselves, as their men have left to seek opportunities elsewhere. Here in the shadow of the drug war, bodies turn up on the outskirts of the village to be taken back to the earth by scorpions and snakes. School is held sporadically, when a volunteer can be coerced away from the big city for a semester.

In Guerrero the drug lords are kings, and mothers disguise their daughters as sons, or when that fails they make them ugly - cropping their hair, blackening their teeth- anything to protect them from the rapacious grasp of the cartels. And when the black SUVs roll through town, Ladydi and her friends burrow into holes in their backyards like animals, tucked safely out of sight. While her mother waits in vain for her husband's return, Ladydi and her friends dream of a future that holds more promise than mere survival, finding humor, solidarity and fun in the face of so much tragedy.

When Ladydi is offered work as a nanny for a wealthy family in Acapulco, she seizes the chance, and finds her first taste of love with a young caretaker there. But when a local murder tied to the cartel implicates a friend, Ladydi's future takes a dark turn. Despite the odds against her, this spirited heroine's resilience and resolve bring hope to otherwise heartbreaking conditions. An illuminating and affecting portrait of women in rural Mexico, and a stunning exploration of the hidden consequences of an unjust war, PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN is an unforgettable story of friendship, family, and determination.

While humility is not especially valued in modern Western culture, Jennifer Clement argues here, it is central to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century understandings of Christian faith and behavior, and is vital to early modern concepts of the self. As this study shows, early modern literary engagements with humility link it to self-knowledge through the practice of right reading, and make humility foundational to any proper understanding of human agency. Yet humility has received little critical interest, and has often been misunderstood as a false virtue that engenders only self-abjection. This study offers an overview of various ways in which humility is discussed, deployed, or resisted in early modern texts ranging from the explicitly religious and autobiographical prose of Katherine Parr and John Donne, to the more politically motivated prose of Queen Elizabeth I and the seventeenth-century reformer and radical Thomas Tryon. As part of the wider 'turn to religion' in early modern studies, this study seeks to complicate our understanding of a mainstream early modern virtue, and to problematize a mode of critical analysis that assumes agency is always defined by resistance.

The early seventeenth-century English sermon was the bestselling print genre of its time, and church preaching was more widely attended than any play. Jennifer Clement argues here that a major aim of these sermons was to teach people how to feel the right emotions - or, as preachers would have said at the time, the passions or affections - to lead a good Christian life. In the process, preachers took a primarily rhetorical approach to the emotions; that is, they used their sermons to define emotions and to encourage their listeners and readers actively to cultivate and shape their emotions in line with Scripture. This study offers an overview of five key emotions - love, fear, anger, grief, and joy - in the sermons of key preachers such as John Donne, Richard Sibbes, Joseph Hall, Launcelot Andrewes, and others. It shows how these preachers engaged with contemporary treatises on the emotions as well as treatises on preaching to highlight the importance of the rhetorical, as opposed to the humoral, approach to understanding the emotions in a religious context. In addition, Clement reads sermons next to early seventeenth-century religious poetry by writers such as Donne, George Herbert, Amelia Lanyer, and Henry Vaughan to show how the emotional concerns of the sermons also appear in the poetry, reverberating beyond the pulpit. Bringing together rhetorical theory, sermon studies, and the history of the emotions, Clement shows how the early seventeenth-century English sermon needs to inform our thinking about literature and its engagement with emotion in this period.