Alumni Travel Reading 2018-2019: Argentina & Chile: Wine and Trekking Adventure

Twenty stories from Chile, including contributions by Marjorie Agosín, Marta Brunet, José Donoso, Ariel Dorfman, Jorge Edwards,and Pablo Neruda.

Besides its inherent interest, street art can provide an introduction to the neighborhoods, politics, and variety of a city.

The ode was a favorite form for Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda. This bilingual volume is the first collection of all his odes in one place.

Donoso is probably the most prominent Chilean writer of the "boom" (a term he coined) and this is one of his more approachable novels, at least compared to the better known, but grotesque, The Obscene Bird of NIght. This story takes place during the summer holidays of the super rich on a Chilean country estate.

Love, crime and the search for truth amidst the terror of a Latin American military dictatorship.

This story of a fictional postman who befriends Pablo Neruda became famous as the movie Il Postino.

This brief novella is a good introduction to Roberto Bolano. It narrates the story of an air force pilot set against the bloody first years of the Pinochet regime.

"The most comprehensive guide to the wines of the entire continent," Evan Goldstein journeys across ten countries, but, of course, gives greatest attention to the two major producing countries, covering their histories, regions, grapes, wineries and styles. He also provides information on wine country dining and leading chefs and restaurants.

"The Vineyard at the End of the World tells the fascinating, four-hundred-year history of how a wine mecca arose in the high Andean desert. Profiling the outlandish figures who fueled the Malbec revolution--including celebrity enologist Michel Rolland, acclaimed American winemaker Paul Hobbs, and the Mondavi-esque Catena family--Ian Mount describes in colorful detail the nefarious scams, brilliant business innovations, and backroom politics that put Malbec on the map."

Characteristic of the excelllent Duke University Press "Reader" series, The Chile Reader makes available a rich variety of documents spanning more than five hundred years of history. Most of the selections are by Chileans from diverse perspectives, whether Mapuche Indians, Spanish colonists, peasants, aristocrats, workers, entrepreneurs, feminists, priests or poets. Interviews, travel diaries, letters, cartoons, photographs, and song lyrics are included.

Like other entries in the Duke University Press "Reader" series, the selections cover a wide variety of historical periods, sources, themes, and formats to provide as complete a view of the country's history, culture and society as possible. The authors, largely Argentine, include some of the most prominent literary writers, historians, and political figures, including Tulio Halperin Donghi, San Martin, Rosas, Sarmiento, Alberdi, Echeverria, Darwin, Dario, Lugones, Girondo, Storni, Roberto Arlt, Borges, Victoria Ocampo, Cortazar, Rodolfo Walsh, Che Guevara, Alejandra Pizarnik, Peron, Guillermo O'Donnell, Ricardo Piglia, Alfonsin, Cesar Aira, and Beatriz Sarlo.

This solid history provides, in addition to the chronological survey, short biographies, a glossary of terms, and extensive recommendations for further readings.

Another entry in the "Greenwoood Histories of the Modern Nations" series.

Jason Wilson provides a history with cultural and touristic information, enhanced by color photos and historical images.

Caistor, a notable translator, also writes cultural and literary guides.

In the chaos of 2001 Argentina an American student (and Borges specialist) seeks out an elusive figure considered to be the greatest living tango singer

Published in 1961 (English translation in 1981), it is considered by many to be Sabato's masterpiece. The story of violent crime in an old family is set in changing 1950s Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires inspired Cortázar's short fiction. There is even a Cortázar walking tour for tourists.

Bioy Casares, a master of the fantastic and the detective ("policial") genres, and a close collaborator of Borges -- many find his writing more engaging than Borges' -- here offers a mystery set in the Buenos Aires of the late 1920s.

Buenos Aires was an enormous presence in the life and work of Borges. There are some good examples in this collection.