A HAUNTING IN HIALEAH GARDENS Raul Palma It’s been a few weeks since I’ve finished AHIHG. I still don’t know what I think about it

Book Review: A Haunting in Hialeah Garden by Raul Palma

A HAUNTING IN HIALEAH GARDENS Raul Palma It’s been a few weeks since I’ve finished AHIHG. I still don’t know what I think about it

Hugo Contreras will be the first to tell you that he’s a fraud at the same time that he sells you healing candles and charms at the botánica where he works. His boss, however, believes that H…

Hialeah was named by a Seminole Indian named Willie Willie, when pioneer developer James Bright asked him to describe the property. He called it Hi-ale-ah, which means pretty prairie or high prairie.

Highlights Un refrescante y original giro postcolonial a Un cuento de Navidad, de Charles Dickens, por el galardonado autor Raúl Palma. About the Author: RAUL PALMA es un cubanoamericano de segunda generación nacido y criado en Miami. 352 Pages Fiction + Literature Genres, Hispanic & Latino Description About the Book "Tâitula original: A haunting in Hialeah Gardens"--Title page verso. Book Synopsis Un refrescante y original giro postcolonial a Un cuento de Navidad, de Charles Dickens, por el galardonado autor Raúl Palma. Situada en Miami, la multiétnica y multicultural ciudad natal de Raúl, la novela explora el problema del endeudamiento y, en particular, del peso económico y físico de moverse por un mundo donde las probabilidades parecen siempre favorecer a ricos y poderosos. Un moderno Bob Cratchit, Hugo Contreras, vive en un húmedo departamento de una sola habitación y sabe que nunca dejará de pagar las cuentas médicas de su difunta esposa ni sus propias deudas, acumuladas durante su juventud. Su Scrooge es Alexi Ramírez, un avaricioso abogado de cobranza cubano-americano con un rostro familiar por sus anuncios en las paradas de autobús y un serio problema personal: un fantasma en el caserón de su familia. Es bajo estas circunstancias que los dos hombres se conocen, ya que Hugo trabaja como babalao, ayudando a los habitantes de Miami a limpiar sus hogares de malos espíritus. Desde hace mucho ya no cree en lo paranormal, pero cuando Alexi, a quien Hugo abomina porque ha estado quitándole su dinero durante años, le promete perdonarle la deuda a cambio de sus servicios, no se puede negar. Dispuesto a salir de deudas y vengarse en nombre de su difunta esposa, Hugo hará lo que ha hecho con decenas de clientes antes: usar trucos psicológicos amateurs para convencer a Alexi de que los espíritus ya se han ido y escapar libre de deudas antes de la próxima Navidad. Por supuesto, la vida en el sistema capitalista corrupto nunca es tan simple, en especial cuando involucra sueños perturbadoramente vívidos de Navidades pasadas y presentes, infecciones de transmisión sexual, catálogos de decoración para el hogar y un mal antiguo que ha estado vigilando a Hugo desde su infancia en las minas de plata de Bolivia. La historia personal de Hugo --incluyendo un peligroso cruce a Estados Unidos de niño y las desgarradoras circunstancias de la muerte de su esposa Meli que lo atormentan-- colisiona con los demonios de Alexi en un clímax (literalmente) explosivo que obliga a Hugo a decidir si quiere vivir como un hombre libre de deudas o condenarse a cubrir las deudas de sus seres queridos muertos. Con un toque del humor satírico de El vendido, de Paul Beatty, la conciencia política de El tigre blanco, de Aravind Adiga, y el aire de mezcla de géneros de El Diablo en plata, de Víctor LaValle, Un fantasma en el Jardín Hialeah reimagina el clásico de Dickens para reflejar un nuevo siglo y la brillante exploración de la invisibilidad y la extrema influencia que tienen las deudas en las vidas de la gente en el siglo XXI. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION A bracingly original, postcolonial riff on Charles Dickens's The Christmas Carol by award-winning debut author Raul Palma. Set in Raul's multiethnic and multicultural home city of Miami, the novel explores the problem of indebtedness--and specifically, the financial and psychic weight of moving through a world where the odds seem to always favor the rich and powerful. A modern-day Bob Cratchit, living in a dank efficiency apartment, Hugo Contreras knows he will never stop paying for his late wife's medical debts or for his own debt accumulated in his youth. His Scrooge is Alexi Ramirez, an avaricious Cuban American debt-collection attorney with a face familiar from his bus stop ads and a serious problem of his own: a haunting at his family's McMansion. It's under these circumstances that the two men meet face to face, for Hugo works as a babaláwo, helping people in Miami cleanse their homes of evil. He's long since stopped believing in the supernatural himself, but when Alexi, whom Hugo despises for garnering his wages for years, promises to forgive Hugo's debts in exchange for his services, he can't refuse. Intent on both escaping his debt and exacting revenge for his late wife, Hugo will do what he's done with dozens of clients before: use slight-of-hand and amateur psychology to convince Alexi the spirits have departed and escape debt-free before the coming Christmas holiday. Of course, life in a corrupt capitalist system is never that simple, especially when it involves disturbingly vivid dreams of Christmases past and present, sexually transmitted infections, home décor catalogues, and an ancient devil who has been keeping tabs on Hugo since his childhood in the Bolivian silver mines. Hugo's personal history--including a fraught crossing to the United States as a boy and the wrenching, guilt-ridden circumstances of the death of his wife Meli--collide with Alexi's demons in a (literally) explosive climax that forces Hugo to decide whether he will live as a debt-free man, or consign himself to the debts of his lost loved ones. With a touch of the satiric humor of Paul Beatty's The Sellout, the political consciousness of Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger, and the genre-bending flair of Victor LaValle's The Devil in Silver, A HAUNTING IN HIALEAH GARDENS reimagines Dickens's classic to reflect a new century and a brilliant exploration of the invisibility and extreme influence that debt has over the lives of people in the 21st century. About the Author RAUL PALMA es un cubanoamericano de segunda generación nacido y criado en Miami. Su libro de cuentos, In This World of Ultraviolet Light (En este mundo de luz ultravioleta) ganó el Don Belton Prize en 2021 y sus textos han aparecido en las revistas Alaska Quarterly Review, The Greensboro Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, entre otras. Enseña narrativa en el Ithaca College, donde también es Decano Asociado de la Facultad en la Escuela de Humanidades y Ciencias. Un fantasma en Hialeah Gardens es su primera novela. Para más información sobre el autor síguelo en sus redes sociales: RaulPalmaPhD y en raulpalmawriter.com

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