The Lesser Tragedy of Death

By Cristina García and Chris Abani (Editor)

From the National Book Award-nominated author of Dreaming in Cuban, “breathtakingly beautiful” poems about her troubled, self-destructive brother (The Austin Chronicle).
 
“[A] brave and moving tribute to a brother gone astray; with skill, unflinching honesty, and redemptive compassion, Cristina García tracks his marvelous, complex, and errant life…These poems are the beautiful, painful, astonishing result of a journey to hell and back in search of the brother she loves. With this first book of poems, García, one of our best novelists and storytellers, proves herself to be a talented poet as well.”—Julia Alvarez, author of Saving the World
 
“Garcia’s spare language lucidly invokes the brother’s insistence on remaining a wreck and the speaker’s helplessness to stop him.”—The Adirondack Review

• Language: English
• Publisher: Akashic Books
• Release date: May 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781936070794

Cristina García

Escritora cubana residente desde niña en Estados Unidos, Cristina García estudió Ciencias Políticas y ha trabajado para medios como The Globe o la revista Time. A lo largo de su carrera ha recibido premios como el Whiting, siendo su novela Soñar en cubano su obra más conocida en castellano.

Book preview

BLACK GOAT is an independent poetry imprint of Akashic Books created and curated by award-winning Nigerian author Chris Abani. Black Goat is committed to publishing well-crafted poetry, focusing on experimental and thematically challenging work. The series aims to create a proportional representation of female and non-American poets, with an emphasis on Africans. Series titles include:

Gomer’s Song by Kwame Dawes

The Ravenous Audience by Kate Durbin

Globetrotter & Hitler’s Children by Amatoritsero Ede

Abstraktion und Einfühlung by Percival Everett

Auto Mechanic’s Daughter by Karen Harryman

Controlled Decay by Gabriela Jauregui

eel on reef by Uche Nduka

Conduit by Khadijah Queen

to be hung from the ceiling by strings of varying length by Rick Reid

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published by Akashic Books

©2010 Cristina García

ePUB ISBN-13: 978-1-936-07079-4

ISBN-13: 978-1-936070-01-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009939083

All rights reserved

Black Goat

c/o Akashic Books

PO Box 1456

New York, NY 10009

[e-mail]

www.akashicbooks.com

For Paqui

Acknowledgments

Mil gracias to Dean Rader for his generosity and brilliance.

Thank you to Donna Seaman and to Triquarterly for publishing Twenty-Nine Palms, and to Daniel Shapiro for including Spell, Brownstone, Twenty-Nine Palms, Namesake, and What You Dream in Review 78, Literature and Arts of the Americas. Also, my gratitude to Craig Perez and Jennifer Reimer of Achiote