The Nobel Prize–winning scientist who transformed our understanding of the human mind—now the first major biography of this singular figure.Unless you're a neuroscientist, Santiago Ramón y Cajal is likely the most important figure in the history of biology you've never heard of. Along with Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur, he ranks among the most brilliant and original biologists of the nineteenth century. His lifelong investigation of neurons—"the mysterious butte...

The Spanish anatomist Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) explored the microscopic world of the brain and found a landscape inhabited by distinctly individual cells, later termed neurons. "The mysterious butterflies of the soul," he called them, "whose beating of wings may one day reveal to us the secrets of the mind." Although he ranks among the greatest scientists in history, the name of the Nobel Prize-winning "father of modern neuroscience" is not as well-known as that of Darwin, Pasteu...

At once intimate and wide-ranging, and as enthralling, surprising, and vivid as the place itself, this is a uniquely eye-opening tour of one of the great metropolises of the world, and its largest Spanish-speaking city.Horizontal Vertigo: The title refers to the fear of ever-impending earthquakes that led Mexicans to build their capital city outward rather than upward. With the perspicacity of a keenly observant flaneur, Juan Villoro wanders through Mexico City seemingly w...

This long-awaited biography provides a fascinating and comprehensive picture of García Márquez's life up to the publication of his classic 100 Years of Solitude. Based on nearly a decade of research, this biographical study sheds new light on the life and works of the Nobel Laureate, father of magical realism, and bestselling author in the history of the Spanish language. As García Márquez's impact endures on well into his ninth decade, Stavans's keen insights constitute the defin...

The first comprehensive biography of the author of One Hundred Years Solitude and Love in a Time of Cholera - the most popular international novelist of the last fifty years.'Gabriel García Márquez once remarked that "every self-respecting writer should have an English biographer". He could have asked for none more accomplished than Gerald Martin' Financial TimesGabriel García Márquez, author of the modern classic...

With the release of Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives in 1998, journalist Monica Maristain discovered a writer “capable of befriending his readers.” After exchanging several letters with Bolaño, Maristain formed a friendship of her own, culminating in an extensive interview with the novelist about truth and consequences, an interview that turned out to be Bolaño’s last.Appearing for the first time in English, Bolaño’s final interview is accompanied by a collection of ...

A Finalist for the PEN/Bograd Weld Prize for BiographyThe most definitive biography to date of the poet Pablo Neruda, a moving portrait of one of the most intriguing and influential figures in Latin American historyFew poets have captured the global imagination like Pablo Neruda. In his native Chile, across Latin America, and in many other parts of the world, his name and legacy have become almost synonymous with liberation movements, and with the language of erotic love.

Frida Kahlo stepped into the limelight in 1929 when she married the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. She was 22; he was 43. Hailed as Rivera’s exotic young wife who ‘dabbles in art’, she went on to produce brilliant paintings, but remained in her husband’s shadow throughout her life. Today, almost six decades after her untimely death, Kahlo’s fame rivals that of Rivera and she has gained international acclaim as a path-breaking artist and a cultural icon.Cutting through ‘Fridamania’,...

Unlock the more straightforward side of The House of the Spirits with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!This engaging summary presents an analysis of The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, a sweeping narrative which chronicles the lives of three generations of the Trueba-del Valle family. As the members of this family grow older, fall in love, develop their own political beliefs and come into conflict with each other, their sto...

One of the humble aims of this book is to introduce one interesting aspect in Rizal's life, that is, his so-called family life. In light of recent findings, this book discusses what happened to Rizal's parents, siblings, and some nephews and nieces after his martyrdom. Clarifying various historical controversies and discrepancies, it deals with issues like the 'secrets' of Rizal family (e.g. whether or not Soledad was Jose's sister).Whenever appropriate and needed, significant comm...

When Octavio Paz won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990, it was in recognition of the fact that for many years he had been the pre-eminent poet in the Spanish speaking world. His work takes the traditions of Mexican poetry as well as French and Spanish influences, and adds what he himself read of his contemporaries in Mexico, Britain and France, in particular, the Surrealists. But Paz was also a great polemicist and essayist, described by V. S. Naipaul as ‘a kind of Mexican George Orwe...