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The Kingdom of This World
Alejo Carpentier
The Kingdom of This World (Spanish: El reino de este mundo) is a novel by Cuban author Alejo Carpentier, published in 1949 in his native Spanish and first translated into English in 1957. A work of historical fiction, it tells the story of Haiti before, during, and after the Haitian Revolution led by Toussaint Louverture, as seen by its central character, Ti Noel, who serves as the novel's connecting thread. Carpentier's work has been influenced by his multi-cultural experience and his passion for the arts, as well as by authors such as Miguel de Cervantes. The novel stems from the author's desire to retrace the roots and history of the New World, and is embedded with what Carpentier calls "lo real maravilloso" or "the marvelous real"—a concept he introduced to the world of literature (not to be confused with magical realism).
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Vivek’s Notes
The Cuban novelist won the Cervantes Prize in 1977. He is known for "lo real maravilloso": the idea that Latin America's history and geography are so extreme they seem magical to outsiders. He set it out in the prologue to this novel of the Haitian Revolution: "But what is the history of Latin America but a chronicle of magical realism?"
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