And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic
In this rich, eye-opening, and uplifting anthology, dozens of esteemed writers, poets, artists, and translators from more than thirty countries send literary dispatches from life during the pandemic. A portion of proceeds benefit booksellers in need.

As our world is transformed by the coronavirus pandemic, writers offer a powerful antidote to the fearful confines of isolation: a window onto lives and corners of the world beyond our own. In Mauritius, a journalist contends with denialism and mourns the last days of summer, lost to the lockdown. In Paris, a writer struggles to protect his young son from fear. In Chile, protesters who prevailed against tear gas and rubber bullets are now halted by a virus. In Queens, after thirteen-hour shifts in the ER, a doctor dons running shoes and makes the long jog home.

And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again takes its title from the last line of Dante’s Inferno, when the poet and his guide emerge from hell to once again behold the beauty of the heavens. In that spirit, the stories, essays, poems, and artwork in this collection—from beloved authors including Jhumpa Lahiri, Mario Vargas Llosa, Eavan Boland, Daniel Alarcón, Jon Lee Anderson, Claire Messud, Ariel Dorfman, and many more—detail the harrowing experiences of life in the pandemic, while pointing toward a less isolated future. Together they comprise a profound global portrait of the defining moment of our time, and send a clarion call for solidarity across borders.

Our literary culture depends on bookstores—and those irreplaceable sources of conversation and community, of inspiration and solace, have been decimated by the lockdown. Net proceeds from And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again will go to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which helps the passionate booksellers we readers depend upon.

1137039098
And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic
In this rich, eye-opening, and uplifting anthology, dozens of esteemed writers, poets, artists, and translators from more than thirty countries send literary dispatches from life during the pandemic. A portion of proceeds benefit booksellers in need.

As our world is transformed by the coronavirus pandemic, writers offer a powerful antidote to the fearful confines of isolation: a window onto lives and corners of the world beyond our own. In Mauritius, a journalist contends with denialism and mourns the last days of summer, lost to the lockdown. In Paris, a writer struggles to protect his young son from fear. In Chile, protesters who prevailed against tear gas and rubber bullets are now halted by a virus. In Queens, after thirteen-hour shifts in the ER, a doctor dons running shoes and makes the long jog home.

And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again takes its title from the last line of Dante’s Inferno, when the poet and his guide emerge from hell to once again behold the beauty of the heavens. In that spirit, the stories, essays, poems, and artwork in this collection—from beloved authors including Jhumpa Lahiri, Mario Vargas Llosa, Eavan Boland, Daniel Alarcón, Jon Lee Anderson, Claire Messud, Ariel Dorfman, and many more—detail the harrowing experiences of life in the pandemic, while pointing toward a less isolated future. Together they comprise a profound global portrait of the defining moment of our time, and send a clarion call for solidarity across borders.

Our literary culture depends on bookstores—and those irreplaceable sources of conversation and community, of inspiration and solace, have been decimated by the lockdown. Net proceeds from And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again will go to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which helps the passionate booksellers we readers depend upon.

22.0 In Stock
And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic

And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic

And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic

And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic

Paperback

$22.00 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

In this rich, eye-opening, and uplifting anthology, dozens of esteemed writers, poets, artists, and translators from more than thirty countries send literary dispatches from life during the pandemic. A portion of proceeds benefit booksellers in need.

As our world is transformed by the coronavirus pandemic, writers offer a powerful antidote to the fearful confines of isolation: a window onto lives and corners of the world beyond our own. In Mauritius, a journalist contends with denialism and mourns the last days of summer, lost to the lockdown. In Paris, a writer struggles to protect his young son from fear. In Chile, protesters who prevailed against tear gas and rubber bullets are now halted by a virus. In Queens, after thirteen-hour shifts in the ER, a doctor dons running shoes and makes the long jog home.

And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again takes its title from the last line of Dante’s Inferno, when the poet and his guide emerge from hell to once again behold the beauty of the heavens. In that spirit, the stories, essays, poems, and artwork in this collection—from beloved authors including Jhumpa Lahiri, Mario Vargas Llosa, Eavan Boland, Daniel Alarcón, Jon Lee Anderson, Claire Messud, Ariel Dorfman, and many more—detail the harrowing experiences of life in the pandemic, while pointing toward a less isolated future. Together they comprise a profound global portrait of the defining moment of our time, and send a clarion call for solidarity across borders.

Our literary culture depends on bookstores—and those irreplaceable sources of conversation and community, of inspiration and solace, have been decimated by the lockdown. Net proceeds from And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again will go to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which helps the passionate booksellers we readers depend upon.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781632063021
Publisher: Restless Books
Publication date: 08/25/2020
Pages: 400
Sales rank: 1,051,357
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

About The Author
Ilan Stavans is the Publisher of Restless Books and the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books include On Borrowed Words, Spanglish, Dictionary Days, The Disappearance, and A Critic’s Journey. He has edited The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, the three-volume set Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories, The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, among dozens of other volumes. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Chile’s Presidential Medal, the International Latino Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award. Stavans’s work, translated into twenty languages, has been adapted to the stage and screen. A cofounder of the Great Books Summer Program at Amherst, Stanford, Chicago, Oxford, and Dublin, he is the host of the NPR podcast "In Contrast."

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction by Ilan Stavans

PART I: A MIGHTY FLAME FOLLOWS A TINY SPARK

Our Lives as Birds

Shenaz Patel Mauritius

translated by Lisa Ducasse

Letter to Italy

Jhumpa Lahiri United States / Italy

translated by Alta L. Price

A Return to the Middle Ages?

Mario Vargas Llosa Peru

translated by Samuel Rutter

Pandemania

Daniel Halpern United States

The Hieroglyphs of COVID-19; or Lockdown

Hubert Haddad Tunisia / France

translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman

The Life of a Virus

Javier Sinay Argentina

translated by Robert Croll

An Area of Critical Concern

Rajiv Mohabir United States / Guyana

Obstacle

Mona Kareem Kuwait / United States

PART II: THE PATH TO PARADISE BEGINS IN HELL

Journal of the Kairos

Filip Springer Poland

translated by Sean Gasper Bye

A Cowardly New World

Teresa Solana Spain

translated by Peter Bush

The Intrusion

Naivo Madagascar

translated by Allison M. Charette

Augury

Frederika Randall United States / Italy

Our Old Normal

Khalid Albaih Sudan

A Certain Slant of Light

Hamid Ismailov Uzbekistan

translated by Shelley Fairweather-Vega

Genesis, COVID.19

Andrés Neuman Argentina / Spain

translated by Ilan Stavans

@Coronarratives

Nadia Christidi Lebanon

Plague Days

Lynne Tillman United States

The Song of the Stormy Petrel: A Cautionary Tale

Maxim Osipov Russia

translated by Boris Dralyuk

Today, When I Could Do Nothing

Jane Hirshfield United States

The Virus of Hasty Cover-Up

György Spiró Hungary

translated by Bernard Adams

PART III: I’M NOT ALONE IN MISERY

The Longest Shift: A New Doctor Faces the Coronavirus in Queens

Rivka Galchen Canada / United States

Not Without

Forrest Gander United States

Toiling Under the Canopy of Empire

Lilya Kalaus Kazakhstan

translated by Shelley Fairweather-Vega

Chronicle from the Vortex of a Global Tragedy

Gabriela Wiener Peru

translated by Jessica Powell

The Age of Calamity

Jon lee Anderson and Ilan Stavans United States and Mexico

Peregrination

Louis-Philippe Dalembert Haiti

translated by Ghjulia Romiti

Draupadi on the Mountaintop

Priyanka Champaneri United States

Confronting the Pandemic in a Time of Revolt: Voices from Chile

Ariel Dorfman Chile

The Parable of the Bread

Juan Villoro Mexico

translated by Charlotte Coombe

Confinement

Ana Simo United States

PART IV: FAITH IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR

Corona Correspondence #25

Francine Prose United States

My First Lockdown

Majed Abusalama Palestine

Coronapocalypse: Reflections from Lockdown

Pedro Ángel Palou Mexico

translated by Hebe Powell

The Measure of a Distance

Chloe Aridjis Mexico / United Kingdom

The Descent Wu Ming-Yi Taiwan

translated by Jenna Tang

Quarantine Chronicle

Eko Mexico

Two Poems

André Naffis-Sahely Italy / United Arab Emirates

The Day after the Plague

Yishai Sarid Israel

translated by Ronnie Hope

In Hiatus

Claire Messud United States

Poem for Hikmet

Matthew Zapruder United States

PART V: LOVE INSISTS THE LOVED LOVES BACK

Coronavirus Blues

Gábor T. Szántó Hungary

translated by Paul Olchváry

Birthday

Sayed Kashua Palestinian citizen of Israel

translated by Mitch Ginsburg

Living with My Younger Self

Arshia Sattar India

Empty Days

Carlos Fonseca Costa Rica / Puerto Rico

Quarantine

Eavan Boland Ireland

Wounda

Eduardo Halfon Guatemala

The Arm of Mercy

Grace Talusan Philippines / United States

More Was Lost in the War

Daniel Alarcón Peru

translated by Ilan Stavans

Three Poems

Chris Abani Nigeria / United States

This, Too, Shall Pass

Yoss Cuba

translated by David Frye

My Seclusion

Giacomo Sartori Italy

translated by Frederika Randall

Acknowledgments

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews