I'm the author of three published novels--Caribbean Dreams, Shadow of the Fathers, Under a Dark Sun. A fourth novel, The Surrounding Sea, will be published in December. All the novels concern Puerto Rico, where I lived and worked as a journalist for more than 20 years. I'm looking for a Spanish-language translator for my books.
Floricanto Press, which has published my last three novels, publishes both non-fiction and fiction of Hispanic interest. Floricanto is a small house in California that concentrates on selling its books to libraries. I have done most of the more commercial promotlion of my books--through media contacts and bookstore events in D.C., where I live, and in New York, New Jersey, Miami, Orlando, where there are large Latino communities.
The main themes 'in my novels,explore the highly ambivalent U.S.-Puerto Rico relationship,the nature of colonialism and how the political and the personal interconnect. Crime, corruption and drugs are integral parts ot my story lines, as well as the indominable spirit of survivsal that exists among Puerto Ricans. I believe these themes will resonate for Spanish-language readers throughoutout Latin America, as well as in Spain.
I would like Shadow of the Fathers translated first. The novel is based on a true incident that occurred in Puerto Rico in 1931. An attendant in a San Juan hospital discovered an unmailed letter written by an American doctor claiming that his disgust with the local population has led him to kill eight of his patients. The doctor, sent to the island by the Rockefeller Foundation to treat patients during an epidemic of pernicious anemia. later denied the claim, saying it was all a joke, even though it was discovered that 12 patients under his care had died. The i;ncident caused a sensation on the island and was covered in the U.S, nedia,
I used the incident as the inspiration for my novel, updating the action from the 1930s to 1950-2000, in order to write about post-World War II Puerto Rico and the United States. I've also invented a suspenseful plot .The novel received several favorable reviews.
El Nuevo Dia, Puerto Rico's leading newspaper, chose Shadow of the Fathers as one of the best novels of the year (2008).
Stephen Hunter, a novelist and Pullitzer Prize-winning former film critic for the Washington Post, wrote: "Robert Friedman's vigorous novel tracks the psychological ripples that radiate from a single, ugly and mostly forgotten act of racism in Puerto Rican history; it shows,profoundly, that some things never go away, some wounds never heal."
Edgardo Vega Yunque, the late prize-winning Puerto Rican author, wrote: "Robert Friedman has managed to blend the mystery tale and a politically charged event to create a masterful literary novel that addresses contemporary issues of global human significance. The story races along at breakneck speed. It is well written, well paced and thoroughly satisfying."
The (Denver) Rocky Mountain News said in a review: "This is such an engrossing story that it's easy to imagine it being made into an exciting and serious film."
I believe a translation of the book and good marketing could attract a wide audience in the Spanish-speaking-and-reading world. .
| Title | Info |
|---|---|
|
A novel of crime, corruption, colonialism and compassion in Puerto Rico.
|
|
|
A novel based on a real-life incident in the colonial history pf Puerto Rico.
|
|
|
Crime and colonialism in Puerto Rico coupled with the coming-of-age story of Stévie Perez, born in Puerto Rico, bred in the Bronx, and branded by both worlds.
|
|
|
A novel of survival set in Puerto Rico, circa 1980, that looks at the dark side of life in San Juan, including crime and drugs and political colonialism, but with an overriding compassion for the individuals living there.
|
