{"product_id":"the-queen-of-swords-jazmina-barrera-9781966192091","title":"The Queen of Swords","description":"In what was at first meant to be a short essay about the influential Mexican writer Elena Garro (1916-1988), Jazmina Barrera's deep curiosity and exploration give us a singular portrait of a complex life. Sifting through the writer's archives at Princeton, Barrera is repeatedly thwarted in her attempt to fully know her subject. Traditional means of research - the correspondence, photos, and books - serve only to complicate and cloud the woman and her work. Who was Elena Garro, really? She was a writer, a founder of 'magical realism', a dancer. A devotee to the tarot and the I Ching. A socialite and activist on behalf of indigenous Mexicans. She was a mother and a lover who repeatedly shook off (and cheated on) her manipulative husband, Nobel-laureate Octavio Paz. And above all, she wrote with simmering anger and glittering imagination. The Queen of Swords is a portrait of a woman that also serves as an alternative history of Mexico City; a cry-out for justice; and an homage to the unknowable. It transcends mere biography, supplanting something tidy and authoritative for a sprawling experiment in understanding.","brand":"Two Lines Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67965897769248,"sku":"9781966192091","price":13.59,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0753\/2812\/7264\/files\/9781966192091_3116542.jpg?v=1792922261","url":"https:\/\/bookcorner.com\/products\/the-queen-of-swords-jazmina-barrera-9781966192091","provider":"The Book Corner","version":"1.0","type":"link"}