The Magician of Vienna

About Sergio Pitol

Sergio Pitol Demeneghi is one of Mexico's most acclaimed writers born in the city of Puebla in 1933. He studied law and philosophy in Mexico City. He is renowned for his intellectual career in both the field of literary creation and translation and is renowned for his work in the promotion of Mexican culture abroad which he achieved during his long service as a cultural attache in Mexican embassies and consulates across the globe. He has lived perpetually on the run: he was a student in Rome a translator in Beijing and Barcelona ??a university professor in Xalapa and Bristol and a diplomat in Warsaw Budapest Paris Moscow and Prague. Pitol is a contemporary of the most famous authors of the Latin American Boom and began publishing novels stories criticism and translations in the 1960s. In recognition of the importance of his entire canon of work Pitol was awarded the two most important prizes in the Spanish language world: the Juan Rulfo Prize in 1999 (now known as the FIL Literary Award in Romance Languages) and in 2005 he won the Cervantes Prize the most prestigious literary prize in the Spanish language world often called the Spanish language Nobel. Deep Vellum will publish Pitol's Trilogy of Memory in full in 2014-2015 (The Art of Flight; The Journey; The Magician of Vienna) marking the first appearance of any of Pitol's books in English. George Henson is a literary translator and lecturer of Spanish at the University of Oklahoma. He has translated the three volumes that comprise Sergio Pitol's Trilogy of Memory The Art of Flight The Journey and The Magician of Vienna. Other translated books include Elena Poneiatowska's The Heart of the Artichoke and Luis Jorge Boone's Cannibal Nights. He is a frequent contributor to World Literature Today and Asymptote.