LETRAS

Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens’s most popular and dramatic stories. It begins on a muddy English road in an atmosphere charged with mystery and it ends in the Paris of the Revolution with one of the most famous acts of self-sacrifice in literature. In between lies one of Dickens’s most exciting books—a historical novel that, generation after generation, has given readers access to the profound human dramas that lie behind cataclysmic social and political events. Famous for its vivid characters, including the courageous French nobleman Charles Darnay, the vengeful revolutionary Madame Defarge, and cynical Englishman Sydney Carton, who redeems his ill-spent life in a climactic moment at the guillotine (“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done”), the novel is also a powerful study of crowd psychology and the dark emotions aroused by the Revolution, illuminated by Dickens’s lively comedy.

THE BOOK BEHIND THE THIRD SEASON OF GAME OF THRONES, AN ORIGINAL SERIES NOW ON HBO. Here is the third volume in George R. R. Martin's magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R. R. Martin's stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction. A STORM OF SWORDS Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King's Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. . . . But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others--a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords. . . .

El 15 de noviembre de 1959, en un pueblecito de Kansas, los cuatro miembros de la familia Clutter fueron salvajemente asesinados en su casa. Los crímenes eran aparentemente inmotivados, y no se encontraron claves que permitieran identificar a los asesinos. Cinco años, cuatro meses y veintinueve días más tarde, el 14 de abril de 1965, Dick Hickcock y Perry Smith fueron ahorcados como culpables de las muertes en la penitenciaría del estado de Kansas. A partir de estos hechos, y tras realizar largas y minuciosas investigaciones con los protagonistas reales de la historia, Truman Capote dio un vuelco a su carrera de narrador y escribió A sangre fría, la novela que le consagró definitivamente como uno de los grandes de la literatura norteamericana del siglo XX. Capote sigue paso a paso la vida del pequeño pueblecito, esboza retratos de los que serían víctimas de una muerte tan espantosa como insospechada, acompaña a la policía en las pesquisas que condujeron al descubrimiento y detención de Hickcock y Smith y, sobre todo, se concentra en los dos criminales psicópatas hasta construir dos personajes perfectamente perfilados, a los que el lector llegará a conocer íntimamente.