The Difficult Ghost
Description
<b>An incisive, stylish exploration of how Truman Capote wrote <i>In Cold Blood</i> and the ethics of storytelling by a star non-fiction writer</b>
<b>'A gem of a book' <i>The Times</i></b>
In 1960, Truman Capote arrived in the small town of Palamos on the Costa Brava.He'd hoped a short break from New York's social scene would help him finish the book he was writing about two young men convicted of a horrific murder. He wound up staying in Europe for three years of agonising self-exile, wrestling with his haunting material, crafting a masterpiece, and waiting for the event that would allow him to finish it - the execution of those two men.
Following in Capote's footsteps in Palamos, celebrated journalist Leila Guerriero finds almost no trace of those turbulent years. As she sorts through a jumble of competing local accounts and blatant fabrications, she launches a dazzling enquiry into the curious afterlife of writing - and the dark complexities of turning life into literature.
Reviews / Votes
A real gem of a book, offering a brief but valuable contemplation of the curious afterlife of great literature * The Times * Engaging... Guerriero dissects Capote's ambidextrous morality... a timely reminder that all non-fiction is a fabrication on some level * Financial Times * Written in Guerriero's trademark dry, cutting and highly expressive style... Magnificent * El Cultural * Guerriero is one of the masters of the new Latin American journalism. She has invented a new form of writing profiles... The book does not reveal Capote's life, but it does reveal the myth of Capote in Palamos, and in the end the myth is more important than reality * Zenda * Driven by essential questions about truth, writing and literary non-fiction, that genre of which In Cold Blood remains the absolute model and of which Guerriero is today one of the greatest exponents * Le Monde * Crystalline and yet mysterious, slender and yet exhaustive, The Difficult Ghost is a marvel of compression and unease -- Rupert Thomson, author of 'Barcelona Dreaming'More details
Persons
Megan McDowell is a Spanish-language literary translator from Kentucky. Her work includes books by Alejandro Zambra, Samanta Schweblin, Lina Meruane, Mariana Enriquez, Alvaro Bisama, Arturo Fontaine, and Juan Emar.