Used book – *Trafiquants de beauté*, Zoé Valdés

THE EDITORS' PERSPECTIVE

Hunting for beauty amidst the rubble is the only response the characters in these short stories can offer to the widespread manipulations that have become law. They have few resources at their disposal, but great dreams for ingenious arrangements with reality.

Such is the case of the overgrown teenager who mocks a European photographer reveling in the squalor of Old Havana; of the rebellious "contemporary" young woman who trades her charms with the ghost of a famous French poet, an arms and ivory dealer; of the small compromises with Heaven or the hilarious trafficking of emotions to save a forbidden Christmas.

Popular wit and eminently emotional geography weave inseparable links between these texts which, written between 1988 and 1998 (from Havana to Paris), bear the fever of Zoé Valdés's early works. In a colorful and libertarian style, she gracefully combines the evil spirits of the past with a powerful love of life.

Born in Havana, Zoé Valdés has lived in Paris since 1995. Her work has been translated into some twenty languages.

ACTES SUD

HUBERT

NYSSEN PUBLISHER

PUBLISHER ID: 4185

LEGAL DEPOSIT: JUNE 2001

ISBN 2-7427-3322-1

F7 7456

100 FF - 15.24 €

9782742733224