Mona and Other Tales (18 page)

 

 

Reinaldo Arenas
was born near Holguín, Cuba, in 1943. His second novel, later known as
Hallucinations,
had to be smuggled out of his country to be published. When it appeared in France, it brought him international fame and a nomination for the Prix Médicis. He wrote nine novels, three books of stories, two volumes of poetry, plays, essays and a memoir—much of it in the last ten years of his life in New York. Suffering from AIDS, he committed suicide in 1990.

Dolores M. Koch
was born in Cuba and holds a Ph.D. in Latin American literature. At Arenas's request, she translated his novel
The Doorman
and afterward, his memoir,
Before Night
Falls,
which was a
New York Times
Best Book of the Year. She lives in New York City.

Also by Reinaldo Arenas

Singing from the Well
The Ill-Fated Peregrinations of Fray Servando
 (Hallucinations)
The Palace of the White Skunks
Farewell to the Sea
Old Rosa: A Novel in Two Stories
The Assault
The Color of Summer
El Central: A Cuban Sugar Mill
Graveyard of the Angels
The Doorman
Before Night Falls

English translation copyright
©
1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 by Dolores M. Koch

Copyright © 2001 by The Estate of Reinaldo Arenas

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

 

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Some of the stories in this collection were first published in English in the following: “The Glass Tower” in
Grand Street 61
(New York, 1997). “Halley's Comet” in
Hopscotch: A Cultural Review
(Vol. 2, No. 1, Duke University Press, 2000). “Mona” in
The Penguin Book of International Gay Writing,
edited by Mark Mitchell (New York: Viking, 1995). “Something Is Happening on the Top Floor” in
Dream with No
Name: Contemporary Fiction from Cuba,
edited by Juana Ponce de Leon and Esteban Rios Rivera (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999). “Traitor” in
Index on Censorship:
Lost Words,
edited by Alberto Manguel and Craig Stephenson (London: Orion, 1996).

All of the stories in this collection were originally published in the following Spanish language works:
Adiós a mamá (De La Habana a Nueva York),
copyright © 1995 by the Estate of Reinaldo Arenas, copyright © 1995 by Ediciones Altera, S. L. (Barcelona: Ediciones Altera).
Viaje a La Habana (Novela en Tres Viajes),
copyright © 1990 by Reinaldo Arenas (Miami: Ediciones Universal).
Termina el desfile,
copyright © 1981 by Reinaldo Arenas, copyright © 1981 by Editorial Seix Barral, S. A. (Barcelona: Seix Barral).
Final de un cuento,
copyright © 1991 by Reinaldo Arenas (Huelva, Spain: Diputacion Provincial de Huelva). “The Empty Shoes,” originally published as “Los zapatos vacios,” copyright © 1999 by the Estate of Reinaldo Arenas (
Encuentro,
No. 12/13, Spring/Summer 1999, Madrid).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arenas, Reinaldo, 1943–
Mona and other tales / Reinaldo Arenas; translated by Dolores M. Koch— 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Arenas, Reinaldo, 1943—Translations into English. I. Koch, Dolores. II. Title.
PQ7390.A72 A24 2001
863'.64—dc21 2001026552

 

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