The Love History of a Dancing Man

Hernán Rivera Letelier

NOVEL. ALFAGUARA, 2013. 152 PAGES.

He was ugly, truly ugly, but he was also the greatest dancer ever seen in the Atacama desert. Fernando Noble came to Coya with his wife, Ana Santa Fe, looking for work. He managed to get a post as night watchman in the gunpowder warehouse, a job nobody else wanted. His “gift for movement” became clear at the first party in the Grand Hall. Dressed in one of his anachronous pinstriped suits, he amazed partygoers with his steps and poses during the first dance. “That night it was as though the law of gravity didn’t apply to Ugly, he could dance with a prize steer and make it seem as though it were floating in his arms.” Although everything seemed to be going well for him after that night, he wife’s illness and a few other mishaps turned his life upside down. From then on nothing was the same for Ugly. Not even a new love or his hidden passion for the ballet could change the fate he had inherited from his parents; two other artists brought down by failure. This dancing story; rhythmic, melodic and harmonious, introduces us to an eccentric cast of characters that could – and still can – be found on dance floors the world over.

PUBLISHED BY: Spanish in the world ALFAGUARA

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