Alejo Carpentier

<p>Alejo Carpentier was one of the greatest Latin American novelists of the twentieth century as well as a musicologist journalist cultural promoter and diplomat. His fictional world issues from an encyclopedic knowledge of the history art music and literature of Latin America and Europe. Carpentier's novels and stories are the enabling discourse of today's Latin American narrative and his interpretation of Latin American history has been among the most influential. Carpentier was the first to provide a comprehensive view of Caribbean history that centered on the contribution of Africans above and beyond the differences created by European cultures and languages. <i>Alejo Carpentier: The Pilgrim at Home</i> first published in 1977 and updated for this edition covers the life and works of the great Cuban novelist offering a new perspective on the relationship between the two.</p> <p>González Echevarría offers detailed readings of the works <i>La música en Cuba</i> <i>The Kingdom of This World</i> <i>The Lost Steps</i> and <i>Explosion in a Cathedral</i>. In a new concluding chapter he takes up Carpentier's last years his relationship with the Cuban revolutionary regime and his last two novels <i>El arpa y la sombra</i> and <i>La consagración de la primavera</i> in which Carpentier reviewed his life and career.</p>