Canción de Tumba / The Grave Song

La vida de Guadalupe Ch?vez, prostituta enferma de leucemia, narrada con mucho amor y crudeza por su hijo escritor.



Premio Ja?n de Novela 2011



Premio de Novela Elena Poniatowska 2012



En Canci?n de Tumba, el siglo XXI nos respira en la nuca con su aliento m?s fiero. Novela descarnada, pero sabia y po?tica en su crudeza, se mueve en la l?nea de El desbarrancadero, de Fernando Vallejo. Creo que no hay en castellano nadie tan genialmente contempor?neo como Juli?n Herbert. -Laura Restrepo Canci?n de tumba narra la azarosa vida de Guadalupe Ch?vez, prostituta y madre del narrador que, a lo largo del libro, se encamina hacia la muerte, v?ctima de leucemia. La enfermedad de Guadalupe impone al protagonista un ejercicio autobiogr?fico que lo llevar? a sumergirse en su infancia y su juventud, al tiempo que indaga en la compleja relaci?n con su madre, con sus propios hijos y con su pa?s, M?xico, asolado por la corrupci?n, la violencia y la destrucci?n. La novela de Juli?n Herbert saca esqueletos del armario, crea una voz narrativa genuina y febril, dibuja un M?xico desalmado poblado por personajes que ya forman parte de lo mejor de la literatura en espa?ol. Canci?n de tumba es poes?a, m?sica y una lectura inagotable. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION The life of Guadalupe Ch?vez, a prostitute suffering from leukemia, narrated with plenty of love and harshness by her writer son.



Jaen Novel Prize 2011.



Elena Poniatowska Novel Prize 2012.



"In The Grave Song, the twenty-first century breathes down our necks with its most ferocious breath. A stark novel, though wise and poetic in its own crudeness, moving along the lines of The Edge of the Abyss, by Fernando Vallejo. I do not think there is anyone as brilliantly contemporary in Spanish, as Juli?n Herbert." --Laura Restrepo



The Grave Song tells the story of Guadalupe Ch?vez' eventful life, a prostitute and the narrator's mother, heading throughout the book towards her own demise from leukemia. Guadalupe's disease presses an autobiographical exercise upon the protagonist, immersing him in his childhood and youth, at the time he delves into the complex relationship he has with his mother, his own children, and his country, Mexico, devastated by corruption, violence, and destruction. Juli?n Herbert's novel takes the skeletons out of the closet, creates a genuine and feverish narrative voice, and portrays a soulless Mexico, inhabited by characters that are already part of the best literature in the Spanish language. The Grave Song is poetry, music, and an inexhaustible read.