“An epic work of literary creation . . . There could be no greater vindication of the wonders of the lands and people of Latin America than Memory of Fire.” —The Washington Post Eduardo Galeano’s monumental three-volume retelling of the history of the New World begins with Genesis, a vast chain of legends sweeping from the birth of creation to the era of savage colonialism. Through lyrical prose and deep understanding, Galeano (author of the celebrated Open Veins of Latin America) recounts creation myths, pre-Columbian societies, and the brutality of conquest, from the Andes to the Great Plains. Galeano’s project to restore to history “breath, liberty, and the word” unfolds as a unique, powerful work of literature. This daring masterpiece sets the past free, weaving a new kind of history from mythology, silenced voices, and the clash of worlds. Genesis is the first book of the Memory of Fire trilogy, which continues with Faces and Masks and Century of the Wind.

Genesis, the first volume in Eduardo Galeano's Memory of Fire trilogy, is both a meditation on the clashes between the Old World and the New and, in the author's words, an attempt to “rescue the kidnapped memory of all America.” It is a fierce, impassioned, and kaleidoscopic historical experience that takes us from the creation myths of the Makiritare Indians of the Yucatan to Columbus's first, joyous moments in the New World to the English capture of New York.

All three books in the American Book Award–winning Memory of Fire Trilogy available in a single volume for the first time. Eduardo Galeano’s Memory of Fire Trilogy defies categorization—or perhaps creates its own. It is a passionate, razor-sharp, lyrical history of North and South America, from the birth of the continent’s indigenous peoples through the end of the twentieth century. The three volumes form a haunting and dizzying whole that resurrects the lives of Indians, conquistadors, slaves, revolutionaries, poets, and more. The first book, Genesis, pays homage to the many origin stories of the tribes of the Americas, and paints a verdant portrait of life in the New World through the age of the conquistadors. The second book, Faces and Masks, spans the two centuries between the years 1700 and 1900, in which colonial powers plundered their newfound territories, ultimately giving way to a rising tide of dictators. And in the final installment, Century of the Wind, Galeano brings his story into the twentieth century, in which a fractured continent enters the modern age as popular revolts blaze from North to South. This celebrated series is a landmark of contemporary Latin American writing, and a brilliant document of culture.

Unfurling like a medieval book of days, each page of Eduardo Galeano's Children of the Days has an illuminating story that takes inspiration from that date of the calendar year, resurrecting the heroes and heroines who have fallen off the historical map, but whose lives remind us of our darkest hours and sweetest victories. Challenging readers to consider the human condition and our own choices, Galeano elevates the little-known heroes of our world and decries the destruction of the intellectual, linguistic, and emotional treasures that we have all but forgotten. Readers will discover many inspiring narratives in this collection of vignettes: the Brazilians who held a "smooch-in" to protest against a dictatorship for banning kisses that "undermined public morals;" the astonishing day Mexico invaded the United States; and the "sacrilegious" women who had the effrontery to marry each other in a church in the Galician city of A Coruna in 1901. Galeano also highlights individuals such as Pedro Fernandes Sardinha, the first bishop of Brazil, who was eaten by Caete Indians off the coast of Alagoas, as well as Abdul Kassem Ismael, the grand vizier of Persia, who kept books safe from war by creating a walking library of 117,000 tomes aboard four hundred camels, forming a mile-long caravan. Beautifully translated by Galeano's longtime collaborator, Mark Fried, Children of the Days is a majestic humanist treasure that shows us how to live and how to remember. It awakens the best in us.

"An Latin American-eye view of the conquest of the Americas and Latin America, divided into two parts. In the first are the myths of pre-Columbian America; in the other, the history of America unfolds from the 15th century to 1700" --publisher.

'[A] masterpiece of reportorial thoroughness, painstaking research, and serious reflection.' Edward Said

The third of a three-part study of Latin American history, focusing on events and people of the twentieth century.