Novel · A way to begin
Confidences
Íntimas
Adela Zamudio · 1913
Synopsis
Juan, passing through Cochabamba on business, writes eleven letters to his friend Armando. In them he judges the women of the house that receives him: his sister-in-law Casta, the wife of his brother Modesto, with whom he is staying; Gracia, her sister, who has remained unmarried and is devoted to raising her nephews; Blanca Rocha, Gracia's friend. From letter to letter, these figures change under his pen. The second part gives two long letters from Antonia, a married woman, to Gracia, in which the story is told of Evangelina Paz, slandered, forced to withdraw from the world and to give up the man she loves.
Context
The only novel by its author, the book appeared in 1913 and went almost unnoticed; it was criticised for departing from the realist novel. To the publisher Claudio Peñaranda she had modestly presented it as a story for women, doubting that any man would finish it without falling asleep. It was not until the end of the century that critics took it up: Leonardo García Pabón reissued it in La Paz, with Plural, in 1999, with a study, and the second part, written by women, has since been read there as a response to the judgements of the first. An English translation by Laura Nagle, introduced by Giovanna Rivero, appears in 2026.
Who it is for
In Spanish, with no French translation, translated into English; two series of letters, to be read as two voices that contradict each other.
Prizes and reception
Regarded today as a rediscovered classic of Bolivian modernism, and in 2011 included among the fifteen fundamental novels of the country.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.