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Alejo Carpentier

Alejo Carpentier

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El acoso

El acoso / The Chase

Novel , 1956

ALIANZA

Pages: 162

Dictatorship Literary Fiction Music

The action of The Chase unfolds during the 46 minutes it takes for Beethoven's Heroic Symphony to be performed in a theater in Havana. Inside, a young man who has shifted from political combat to terrorism and, through torture, to betrayal has sought refuge. His former comrades, now turned into his pursuers, await him in the back rows. Alejo Carpentier recreates in this novel, through a plurality of voices – the narrator, the persecuted, and the theater ticket seller – both the political climate experienced in Cuba during the turbulent years of Gerardo Machado's dictatorship and more personal aspects of the protagonist's life (his political activism, his romantic and family relationships, his religious concerns, and the turmoil of his conscience).

“In a nameless, Havana-like city, an anonymous man flees a team of shadowy, relentless political assassins, and ultimately takes refuge in a symphony auditorium during a performance of Beethoven's Eroica. . . . This nightmarish novel does not so much tell a story as map the secret political infrastructure of cities, governments, churches, music, and bodies.” The Independent

“Carpentier was one of the early giants of modern Latin American literature, a man whose writing helped shape and define the period of 'magic realism.' . . . [The Chase is] a masterpiece.” New York Times Book Review

“A taut tale of political violence and psychological suspense.” San Francisco Chronicle

Novel

El arpa y la sombra, 1979
La consagración de la primavera, 1978
Concierto barroco, 1974
El recurso del método, 1974
El siglo de las luces, 1962
El acoso, 1956
Los pasos perdidos, 1953
El reino de este mundo, 1949
¡Écue Yamba Ó!, 1933

Short stories and novellas

Guerra del tiempo, 1958

Non-fiction

Crónicas habaneras, 2018
Visión de América, 1998
Temas de la lira y el bongó, 1994
Conferencias, 1987
Ensayos, 1984
La ciudad de las columnas, 1970
Tientos y diferencias y otros ensayos, 1964
La música en Cuba, 1946

Biography / Memoirs

Diario (1951-1957), 2013

Journalistic Work

El ocaso de Europa, 2014
Crónicas caribeñas, 2012
El cine, décima musa, 2011
Crónicas de España (1925-1937), 2004
Crónicas del regreso, 1996
Ese músico que llevo dentro, 1980

Letters

Cartas a Toutouche, 2011