And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again

In this rich, eye-opening, and uplifting anthology, dozens of esteemed writers, poets, artists, and translators from more than thirty countries send literary dispatches from life during the pandemic. A portion of proceeds benefit booksellers in need.

As our world is transformed by the coronavirus pandemic, writers offer a powerful antidote to the fearful confines of isolation: a window onto lives and corners of the world beyond our own. In Mauritius, a journalist contends with denialism and mourns the last days of summer, lost to the lockdown. In Paris, a writer struggles to protect his young son from fear. In Chile, protesters who prevailed against tear gas and rubber bullets are now halted by a virus. In Queens, after thirteen-hour shifts in the ER, a doctor dons running shoes and makes the long jog home.

And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again takes its title from the last line of Dante's Inferno, when the poet and his guide emerge from hell to once again behold the beauty of the heavens. In that spirit, the stories, essays, poems, and artwork in this collection-from beloved authors including Jhumpa Lahiri, Mario Vargas Llosa, Eavan Boland, Daniel Alarcón, Jon Lee Anderson, Claire Messud, Ariel Dorfman, and many more-detail the harrowing experiences of life in the pandemic, while pointing toward a less isolated future. Together they comprise a profound global portrait of the defining moment of our time, and send a clarion call for solidarity across borders.

Our literary culture depends on bookstores-and those irreplaceable sources of conversation and community, of inspiration and solace, have been decimated by the lockdown. Net proceeds from And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again will go to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which helps the passionate booksellers we readers depend upon.

Autorentext

Ilan Stavans is the Publisher of Restless Books and the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books include On Borrowed Words, Spanglish, Dictionary Days, The Disappearance, and A Critic's Journey. He has edited The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, the three-volume set Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories, The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, among dozens of other volumes. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Chile's Presidential Medal, the International Latino Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award. Stavans's work, translated into twenty languages, has been adapted to the stage and screen. A cofounder of the Great Books Summer Program at Amherst, Stanford, Chicago, Oxford, and Dublin, he is the host of the NPR podcast "In Contrast."

Klappentext

In this rich, eye-opening, and uplifting digital anthology, dozens of esteemed writers, poets, and artists from more than thirty countries send literary dispatches from life during the pandemic. Net proceeds benefit booksellers in need.

As our world is transformed by the coronavirus pandemic, writers offer a powerful antidote to the fearful confines of isolation: a window onto lives and corners of the world beyond our own. In Mauritius, a journalist contends with denialism and mourns the last days of summer, lost to the lockdown. In Paris, a writer struggles to protect his young son from fear. In Chile, protesters who prevailed against tear gas and rubber bullets are now halted by a virus. In Queens, after thirteen-hour shifts in the ER, a doctor dons running shoes and makes the long jog home.

And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again takes its title from the last line of Dante's Inferno, when the poet and his guide emerge from hell to once again behold the beauty of the heavens. In that spirit, the stories, essays, poems, and artwork in this collection-from beloved authors including Jhumpa Lahiri, Mario Vargas Llosa, Eavan Boland, Daniel Alarcón, Jon Lee Anderson, Claire Messud, Ariel Dorfman, and many more-detail the harrowing experiences of life in the pandemic, while pointing toward a less isolated future. Together, they comprise a profound global portrait of the defining moment of our time, and send a clarion call for solidarity across borders.

Our literary culture depends on bookstores-and those irreplaceable sources of conversation and community, of inspiration and solace, have been decimated by the lockdown. Net proceeds from And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again will go to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which helps the passionate booksellers we readers depend upon.

Inhalt

Contents

Introduction by Ilan Stavans

Part I: A Mighty Flame Follows a Tiny Spark

A Deal with the Devil: Your Health in Exchange for Your Freedom

Letter to Italy

Jhumpa Lahiri (United States), translated by Alta L. Price letter

A Return to the Middle Ages?

Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), translated by Samuel Rutter opinion

Pandemania

Daniel Halpern (United States) poem

The Hieroglyphs of COVID-19; or, Lockdown

Hubert Haddad (Tunisia), translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman essay

The Life of a Virus

Javier Sinay (Argentina), translated by Robert Croll narrative journalism

An Area of Critical Concern

Rajiv Mohabir (United States) poetry / nonfiction

Obstacle

Mona Kareem (Kuwait) poem

Our Lives as Birds

Shenaz Patel (Mauritius), translated by Lisa Ducasse reflection through a window pane

Part II: The Path to Paradise Begins in Hell

Journal of the Kairos

Filip Springer (Poland), translated by Sean Gasper Bye story

A Cowardly New World

Teresa Solana (Spain), translated by Peter Bush essay

The Intrusion

Naivo (Madagascar), translated by Allison M. Charette poem

Augury

Frederika Randall (United States / Italy) essay

Our Old Normal

Khalid Albaih (Romania / Sudan) essay

A Certain Slant of Light

Hamid Ismailov (Uzbekistan), translated by Shelley Fairweather-Vega short story

Genesis, COVID.19

Andrés Neuman (Argentina / Spain), translated by Ilan Stavans poem

@Coronarratives

Nadia Christidi (Greece / Syria) photo essay

Plague Days

Lynne Tillman (United States) essay

The Song of the Stormy Petrel: A Cautionary Tale

Maxim Osipov (Russia), translated by Boris Dralyuk short fiction

Today, When I Could Do Nothing

Jane Hirschfield (United States) poem

The Virus of Hasty Cover-Up

György Spiró (Hungary), translated by Bernard Adams polemic

Part III: I'm Not Alone in Misery

The Longest Shift: A New Doctor Faces the Coronavirus in Queens

Rivka Galchen (Canada / United States) reportage

Not Without

Forrest Gander (United States) poem

Toiling Under the Canopy of Empire

Lilya Kalaus (Kazakhstan), translated by Shelley Fairweather-Vega essay

Chronicle from the Vortex of a Global Tragedy

Gabriela Wiener (Peru), translated by Jessica Powell chronicle

The Age of Calamity

Jon Lee Anderson and Ilan Stavans (United States and Mexico) dialogue

Peregrination

Louis-Philippe Dalembert (Haiti), translated by Ghjulia Romiti poem

Draupadi on the Mountaintop

Priyanka Champaneri (United States) essay

Confronting the Pandemic in a Time of Revolt: Voices from Chile

Ariel Dorfman (Chile) essay / meditation

The Parable of the Bread

Juan Villoro (Mexico), translated by Charlotte Coombe parable

Confinement

Ana Simo (Cuba / France / United States) nonfiction fiction

Part IV: Faith Is the Substance of Things Hoped For

Corona Correspondence #25

Francine Prose (United States) letter

My First Lockdown

Majed Abusalama (Palestine) reminiscence

Coronapocalypse: Reflections from Lockdown

Pedro Ángel Palou (Mexico), translated by Hebe Powell essay

The Measure of a Distance

Chloe Aridjis (Mexico) poem

The Descent

Wu Ming-Yi (Taiwan), tr…