Author of the Month: B. Traven
Selected by the Bookshop
Our Author of the Month for September is the German-Mexican novelist B. Traven. Although his books were huge bestsellers and he was cited by Albert Einstein as his favourite author, his true identity remains a mystery. Traven seems to have relished this – ‘The biography of a creative person is absolutely unimportant’, he writes in his afterword to The Death Ship.
The books themselves, while drawing on the traditional tropes of the adventure story, are marked by a keen political instinct, and an overwhelming sympathy for the downtrodden, the oppressed and the voiceless. Somewhat neglected in the latter half of the 20th century, three of his masterpieces have now appeared in welcome new editions from Penguin Classics. Start with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, famously filmed by John Huston, finish with the heartbreaking Bridge in the Jungle but don’t miss out on The Death Ship, whose astonishing final sequence will send shivers down your spine.
From the publisher:
A cult masterpiece and a darkly comic tale of survival on the high seas, inspired by the mysterious author B. Traven's own life'Whoever survived the Yorikke could never be frightened any more during his lifetime by anything'Stateless and…
From the publisher:
A moving portrayal of loss, consolation and solidarity in a remote Mexican community 'It seemed that even the jungle fell silent for a moment as if it wanted to help save a little child'In the depths of the Mexican jungle, American…
From the publisher:
The cult novel of three desperate prospectors embarking on a perilous quest for gold, and the inspiration for John Huston's classic Oscar-winning film'Gold is a very devilish sort of a thing, believe me, boys'Deep in the wild heart of…
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