Tale Of A Certain Orient - Hardcover

Milton Hatoum was born in Manaus, Amazonas, and now lives in Sao Paulo. He is also the author of The Brothers, which is published in Portugal, the US, Holland, France, Germany, Spain and Lebanon, as well as in Brazil and by Bloomsbury in the UK. The Brothers was also awarded the Jabuti Prize in 2000.

This is a newly revised translation of Hatoum's acclaimed novel The Tree of the Seventh Heaven (1994), which won Brazil's prestigious Jabuti Prize in 1990. Set in the Brazilian port of Manaus, the author's birthplace, the novel revolves around a family of Lebanese immigrants who gather for the funeral of Emilie, the matriarch. In flashbacks the family's story is slowly illuminated by a succession of narrators, including Emilie's and her rigid Muslim husband's unnamed adopted daughter, who for years has lived in Barcelona; Hakim, one of their sons; and Dorner, a German photographer and Emilie's kindred spirit. In their outpouring of recollections, the reader learns of the heartbreak that has consumed Emilie's long and lonely life. The suicide of her beloved brother, Emir; the cruel treatment of her daughter, Samara, because she bore an illegitimate child; the tragic accidental death of that child, a mute--each event is revealed from different viewpoints, a kaleidoscope of memories fueled by Hatoum's dreamy and poetic prose. Deborah Donovan
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