Memory of Fire

Eduardo Galeano's monumental three-volume retelling of the history of the New World begins with Genesis, a vast chain of legends sweeping from the birth of creation to the era of savage colonialism. Through lyrical prose and deep understanding, Galeano (author of the celebrated Open Veins of Latin America) recounts creation myths, pre-Columbian societies, and the brutality of conquest, from the Andes to the Great Plains. Galeano's project to restore to history "breath, liberty, and the word" unfolds as a unique, powerful work of literature. This daring masterpiece sets the past free, weaving a new kind of history from mythology, silenced voices, and the clash of worlds. Genesis is the first book of the Memory of Fire trilogy, which continues with Faces and Masks and Century of the Wind.

For centuries, Europe's imperial powers brutally exploited the peoples and resources of the New World. While soldiers of fortune marched across continents in search of El Dorado, white settlers established plantations and trading posts along the coasts, altering the land and bringing disease and slavery with them. In the midst of a bloody collision of civilizations, the West has birthed new societies out of the old. In the second book of his Memory of Fire trilogy, Eduardo Galeano forges a new understanding of the Americas, history retold from a diverse collection of viewpoints. Spanning the end of empire and the age of revolutions, Faces and Masks brilliantly collects the strands of the past into an iridescent work of literature.

From Guatemala to Rio de Janeiro, La Paz to New York City, Managua to Havana, Century of the Wind ties together the events and people - both large and small - that define the Americas. In hundreds of lyrical and vivid narratives, the final installment of Galeano's indispensible trilogy sees the building of the Panama Canal, the disenfranchisement of indigenous peoples living over Colombia's oil fields, the creation of Superman and the heyday of Faulkner, and coups and upheavals that cleaved an already fragmented continent. Galeano's elegy moves year by year through the century of Castro, Picasso, and Reagan, blending the many voices and varying locales of North and South America and forming a history that is stunning in its scope and savage beauty.

For the first time, you can own all three books of Memory of Fire in a single volume. Eduardo Galeano's Memory of Fire Trilogy defies categorization-or perhaps creates its own. It is a passionate, razor-sharp, lyrical history of North and South America, from the birth of the continent's indigenous peoples through the end of the twentieth century. The three volumes form a haunting and dizzying whole that resurrects the lives of Indians, conquistadors, slaves, revolutionaries, poets, and more. The first book, Genesis, pays homage to the many origin stories of the tribes of the Americas, and paints a verdant portrait of life in the New World through the age of the conquistadors. The second book, Faces and Masks, spans the two centuries between the years 1700 and 1900, in which colonial powers plundered their newfound territories, ultimately giving way to a rising tide of dictators. And in the final installment, Century of the Wind, Galeano brings his story into the twentieth century, in which a fractured continent enters the modern age as popular revolts blaze from North to South. This celebrated series is a landmark of contemporary Latin American writing, and a brilliant document of culture.