Tarantula - by Eduardo Halfon (Paperback)

About the Book

"During an end-of-the-year school break in 1984, two brothers, aged 12 and 13, exiled for several years in the United States, travel home to Guatemala to learn survival skills in a Jewish children's camp in a remote forest in the highland mountains. Despite their reluctance, the boys, who no longer know their homeland and barely speak the language, have been signed up by their parents who hope to restore their allegiance to their religious and national heritage. Upon their arrival, they are met with the promise of adventure in the person of the camp director, Samuel. But early one morning they are roused from their beds and forced to play a sinister game that they can't afford to lose. In this latest installment of his eponymous narrator's journey, Eduardo Halfon unleashes a nightmare scenario of violence, intergenerational trauma, and a solitary tarantula"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Dark lessons from a childhood sleepaway camp reverberate as Eduardo Halfon probes the inheritance of victimhood

In 1984, Eduardo and his younger brother, living in exile for several years in the United States, travel back to their native Guatemala to participate in a Jewish children's camp in a remote forest of the highland mountains. They no longer know their homeland. They barely speak the language. Their parents had insisted that they spend a few days at the camp to learn not only ways of survival in the wild, but also ways of survival in the wild for Jewish children. It's not the same, they had been told. Upon their arrival, they are met with the promise of adventure. But early one morning, they are roused from bed and forced to play a sinister game they can't afford to lose.

Many years later, Eduardo, now a father himself and living in Berlin, happens upon a former campmate in Paris who connects him to Samuel Blum--the counselor who kept a snake in his pocket, had what a young Eduardo took for a tarantula crawling down his arm, and offers no apologies for the camp's disturbing methods.

Review Quotes

Praise for Tarantula

Prix Médicis Étranger Winner
Spanish Association of Literary Critics Premio de la Crítica Winner
Premio Finestres de Narrativa en Castellano Finalist
Prix Grand Continent Finalist
Spanish Booksellers Association Premio TodosTusLibros Finalist

More Praise for Eduardo Halfon

"One of the most talented and exciting writers of our time." --Christopher Merrill, director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa

"Halfon is a brilliant storyteller." --Daniel Alarcón

"Halfon's prose is as delicate, precise, and ineffable as precocious art, a lighthouse that illuminates everything." --Francisco Goldman

"It is not often that one encounters such a mix of personal engagement and literary passion, or pain and tenderness." --Andrés Neuman

"Elegant." --Marie Claire

"Engrossing." --NBC Latino

"Fantastic." --NPR Alt.Latino

"Revelatory." --New York Times Book Review

"Deeply accessible, deeply moving." --Los Angeles Times

"Offer[s] surprise and revelation at every turn." --Reader's Digest

"One senses Kafka's ghost, along with Bolaño's, lingering in the shadows. . . . [Halfon's] books, which take on such dark subjects, are so enjoyable to read." --New York Review of Books

About the Author

Eduardo Halfon is the author of The Polish Boxer, Monastery, Mourning, Canción, and Tarantula. He is the recipient of the Guatemalan National Prize in Literature, International Latino Book Award, Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and Berman Literature Prize, among many other honors. A citizen of Guatemala and Spain, Halfon was born in Guatemala City, attended school in Florida and North Carolina, and has lived in Nebraska, Spain, Paris, and Berlin.