Santa (1903) is a landmark novel of Mexican naturalism by Federico Gamboa. The story follows Santa, a young woman from a rural village who is seduced, abandoned, and ultimately expelled by her family. Forced to survive on her own in Mexico City, Santa descends into prostitution, where she becomes both admired and exploited. Despite her outward success, Santa's life is marked by loneliness, illness, and emotional suffering. The only character who shows her genuine compassion is Hipólito, a ...

This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2023, held in Lisbon, Portugal, during February 16-18, 2023.The 7 regular papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 246 submissions. They contribute to the understanding of relevant trends of current research on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, that include Pattern Recogniti...

This enduring classic of Mexican literature traces the path to ruination of a country girl, Santa, who moves to Mexico City after she is impregnated and abandoned by her lover and subsequently shunned by her family. Once in the city, Santa turns to prostitution and soon gains prominence as Mexico City’s most sought-after courtesan. Despite the opportunities afforded by her success, including the chance to quit prostitution, Santa is propelled by her personal demons toward her ultimate down...

This book constitutes extended and revised versions of the selected papers from the 13th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2020, held in Valletta, Malta, in February 2020.The 29 revised and extended full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 363 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on biomedical electronics and devices; bioimaging; bioinformatics models, methods and algorit...

"Anyone who enjoys novels that are scary, erotic, touching, tragic and thrilling should rush right out to the nearest bookstore and pick up The Shadow of the Wind**. Really, you should." —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post“Wondrous...masterful...The Shadow of the Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero.” —**Entertainment Weekly,

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • "A love story of astonishing power" (Newsweek), the acclaimed modern literary classic by the beloved Nobel Prize-winning author.In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Ferm...

**Now an original series on Prime Video!This “spectacular…absorbing and distinguished work…is a unique achievement, both personal witness and possible allegory of the past, present, and future of Latin America” (The New York Times Book Review).**The House of the Spirits, which introduced Isabel Allende as one of the world’s most gifted storytellers, brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch ...

“A remarkable novel” (The Washington Post) from New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende, introducing her most enchanting creation, Eva Luna: a lover, a writer, a revolutionary, and above all a storyteller.Eva Luna is the daughter of a professor’s assistant and a snake-bitten gardener—born poor, orphaned at an early age, and working as a servant. Eva is a naturally gifted and imaginative storyteller who meets people from all stations and w...

In this gorgeously imagined novel, a journalist interviews those who knew—or thought they knew—Alejandro Bevilacqua, a brilliant, infuriatingly elusive South American writer and author of the masterpiece In Praise of Lying. But the accounts of those in his circle of friends, lovers, and enemies become increasingly contradictory, murky, and suspect. Is everyone lying, or just telling their own subjective version of the truth? As the literary investigation unfolds and a chorus of Bevilacqua'...

Jean Genet's seminal Our Lady Of The Flowers (1943) is generally considered to be his finest fictional work. The first draft was written while Genet was incarcerated in a French prison; when the manuscript was discovered and destroyed by officials, Genet, still a prisoner, immediately set about writing it again. It isn't difficult to understand how and why Genet was able to reproduce the novel under such circumstances, because Our Lady Of The Flowers is nothing less than a mythic recreatio...

Andalusia is a passion - and fifteen years after his last visit Laurie Lee returned. He found a country broken by the Civil War, but the totems of indestructible Spain survive: the Christ in agony, the thrilling flamenco cry-the pride in poverty, the gypsy intensity in vivid whitewashed slums, the cult of the bullfight, the exultation in death, the humour of hopelessness-the paradoxes deep in the fiery bones of Spain. Rich with kaleidoscopic images, A Rose for Winter is as sensual...

From the Nobel Prize-winning author: "A capacious, funny, threatening novel" of wandering souls and political upheaval in 1930s Portugal ( The New York Times Book Review) .The year is 1936, and the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar is establishing himself in Portugal, edging his country toward civil war. At the same time, Dr. Ricardo Reis has returned home to Lisbon after a long sojou...