The Skin of the Sky is the fascinating and haunting story of the life of Lorenzo de Tena, a brilliant Mexican astronomer. Born in the 1930s, the illegitimate son of a businessman and a peasant woman, Lorenzo lives happily with his mother, brothers, and sisters on their mother's farm on a small plot of land outside Mexico City. When Lorenzo's mother dies, his father brings the children to live with him in the capital. Thrust into a privileged world, the children struggle to adjust, and an angry Lorenzo turns to the study of the stars to find solace. He pursues his studies at Harvard, then returns to Mexico, where he attempts to do first-world scientific research in a third-world country. A complex and contradictory man, Lorenzo strives to make his country a better place for all her people, especially the very poor and disenfranchised.
Setting traditional beliefs against technological progress, and personal sacrifice against professional achievement, The Skin of the Sky details the efforts of a country to join the twenty-first century, and paints the portrait of a lonely man who can find true contentment and satisfaction only in the stars.
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Review:
Lorenzo's calling enables [Elena] Poniatowska not only to write of the heavens with mythic awe and ravishing lyricism but also to ponder the conundrums of space and time, our precarious place in the universe, and the great divide between Mexico's educated elite and countless illiterate poor.... Ultimately, Poniatowska's capacious tale of one inspired but lonely man's heroic perseverance dramatizes the divide between the First and Third Worlds and the anguish of those caught in between. - Booklist ""When I read Elena Poniatowska, I'm reminded why she's my hero, why I write, what kind of writer I aspire to be. She's not only an exquisite writer, she's an extraordinary human being. It's this humanity that makes her writing soar."" - Sandra Cisneros
About the Author:
Elena Poniatowska is the author of more than forty works, including the classic Massacre in Mexico and the novels Dear Diego, Tinisima (FSG, 1996) and Here's to You, Jesusa! (FSG, 2001). She lives in Mexico City.
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- PublisherFarrar Straus & Giroux
- Publication date2004
- ISBN 10 0374265755
- ISBN 13 9780374265755
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages322
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