“Bowles, un maestro contador de historias, condensa en cada frase la riqueza cosmológica de Mesoamérica y trae a la vida personajes ancestrales que son al tiempo divertidos, desgarradores, encantadores, grotescos y venerables… Académicos y amantes de la mitología y el folclore: añadan este libro a los clásicos” –
World Literature Today
David Bowles teje la fragmentada mitología del México precolombino en una narración emocionante y homogénea que sigue la tradición del Ramayana de William Buck, de la Ilíada de Robert Fagles y de los Mitos nórdicos de Neil Gaiman.
Las leyendas mitológicas reunidas en
Serpiente emplumada, corazón del cielo
trazan la historia del mundo desde sus inicios en los sueños del dios dual, Ometeotl, hasta la llegada de los conquistadores españoles a México y la caída de la gran ciudad Tenochtitlán. En el transcurso de esta historia sabremos de los Héroes Gemelos, la Serpiente Emplumada y el Corazón del Cielo, y de cómo construyeron el mundo sobre la espalda de un leviatán; del nahualli que cambia de forma; y de los aluxes, aquellos seres con forma de elfos conocidos por ayudar a los vagabundos. Y finalmente, hallaremos cuentos aztecas sobre la llegada de los extranjeros barbudos provenientes del otro lado del mar, que buscan aniquilar el gobierno de Montezuma y destruir las historias que estamos leyendo.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
Kirkus Reviews' Best YA Books of 2018 That Feed Imaginations2018 Texas Institute of Letters Award for Best Young Adult Book
A contemporary retelling of the origin myths of Mexico, crafter as a single cohesive narrative.
The stories in Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky trace the history of the world from its beginnings in the dreams of the dual god Ometeotl, to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in Mexico and the fall of the great city Tenochtitlan. In the course of that history we learn about the Creator Twins, Feathered Serpent, and Dark Heart of Sky, and how they built the world on a leviathan's back; of the shape-shifting nahualli; and the aluxes—elfish beings known to help out the occasional wanderer. And finally, we read Aztec tales about the arrival of the blonde strangers from across the sea, the strangers who seek to upend the rule of Motecuhzoma and destroy the very stories we are reading.
David Bowles stitches together the fragmented mythology of pre-Colombian Mexico into an exciting, unified narrative in the tradition of William BuckÍs Ramayana, Robert Fagles' Iliad, and Neil Gaiman's Norse Myths. Readers of Norse and Greek mythologies will delight in this rich retelling of stories less explored.
Legends and myths captured David Bowles' imagination as a young Latino reader. He was fascinated with epics like the Iliad and the Odyssey. Despite growing up on the United States/Mexico border, he had never read a single Aztec or Mayan myth until he was in college. This experience inspired him to reconnect with that forgotten past. Several of his previous books have incorporated themes from ancient Mexican myths.