Pedro Páramo

By: Juan Rulfo, Douglas J. Weatherford - translator

Narrated by: Thom Rivera

Now an original film streaming on Netflix , directed by Rodrigo Prieto, cinematographer of Killers of the Flower Moon

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“One of the best novels in Hispanic literature, and in literature as a whole.” —Jorge Luis Borges

The highly influential masterpiece of Latin American literature, now published in a new, authoritative translation, and featuring a foreword by Gabriel García Márquez

A masterpiece of the surreal that influenced a generation of writers in Latin America, Pedro Páramo is the otherworldly tale of one man’s quest for his lost father. That man swears to his dying mother that he will find the father he has never met—Pedro Páramo—but when he reaches the town of Comala, he finds it haunted by memories and hallucinations. There emerges the tragic tale of Páramo himself, and the town whose every corner holds the taint of his rotten soul. Although initially published to a quiet reception, Pedro Páramo was soon recognized as a major novel that has served as a touchstone text for writers including Mario Vargas Llosa and José Donoso.

Now published in a new translation from the definitive Spanish edition by celebrated Rulfo scholar Douglas J. Weatherford, and featuring a foreword by Gabriel García Márquez, this new edition of the novel cements its place as one of the seminal literary texts of the twentieth century.

Mortality and Despair

This was a recommended book for me to read while trying to learn Spanish. I hadn’t known much about the book beforehand so it took me a while to realize the magical realism this brings forward. There’s lots of death and at first, it kinda gave me the sense of A Christmas Carol, with various past wrong doings are emphasized. However, this book has much more darkness, mortality, and despair. It is a book that I feel needs multiple reads to grasp all the layers and themes. I really enjoyed the book and probably missed a bit between trying to translate a Spanish text while also trying to listen to parts in English. I highly recommend it for the cultural significance and magical realism elements.

A Masterpiece ✍🏾📖✍🏾

I remember I read Pedro Paramo, an Arabic translation of, three decades ago or so. I recall nothing of that distant reading but someone lives inside graves.

I listened to this marvelous novella in its third English translation and regretted how much I missed not reading / listening to it much much earlier.

Everything in Pedro Paramo is dazzling; and the translation is but first class.

Well done audible.com 👏🏾🎧👏🏾

Memory and death

While many books invite a second reading, this demands one. The beautiful prose notwithstanding the first reading blew past as my brain scrambled to fit the pieces. It was humbling (almost humiliating) to see how little I understood. The second reading not only revealed much more of the stories and how they fit together but also how indelibly that fine prose stayed in the mind. Gabriel Garcia Marquez memorized the book - I think I understand that now. And it is possible to see in this book the seeds of inspiration for “A Hundred Years of Solitude”. Yes, this book deserves a wider audience. Yes, it makes sense that Borges considers it “one of the greatest works of literature”. For those who think (I was one of them) that if the narrative structure were all “straightened” out, this book would be nothing, you could cut the Mona Lisa up into fine pieces and sort and stack the color bits up too. It is a wonderfully short book. I will read it yet again.

Interesting to hear but confusing

I may have to listen a second time to get something from it. The best is I can perhaps now see where the Spanish magical realism got started.

Difficult read

The book is beautifully written and I assume translated accordingly. It was just very hard for me to follow… It goes to present tense and past tense and people who are alive and people who are dead but the most difficult part for me was to keep track of a multitude of characters that kept being introduced and I just couldn’t remember who was who but a few of the main ones.