Novel
Los Capelli
Not translated into English
Yolanda Camarano de Sucre · 1967
Synopsis
The saga of four generations of a family of Italian immigrants on the isthmus, starting from the middle of the nineteenth century. The Capellis live through the three great building projects of the country: the construction of the railway, the French canal undertaken from 1880 to 1888, then the American canal from 1904 to 1914, and the narrative extends to the sixties. The fresco follows what each of these works does to the family and to the country around it.
Context
The manuscript received third prize in the 1959 Ricardo Miró competition; the Harvard journal says it was awarded the year after La Doña del Paz, crowned in 1966, and the Fundación Enrique Bolaños volume dates it to 1967, the year adopted here. The latter sees in it the country's history told through a family, “with less social awareness” than other novels of the time. The book was put back into circulation in 2015 by a self-publishing platform.
Who it is for
In Spanish, with no published translation, reissued in 2015 as print on demand. Better to know the three construction projects that structure the book, the railway and the two canals.
Prizes and reception
According to ReVista, the Harvard publication on Latin America, this novel shows in a realistic and picturesque way how foreigners see the country.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.