The House of Paper (original 2004; edition 2005)

by Carlos Maria Dominguez, Peter Sis (Illustrator), Nick Caistor (Translator)

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Member:	kiwiflowa
Title:	The House of Paper
Authors:	Carlos Maria Dominguez
Other authors:	Peter Sis (Illustrator), Nick Caistor (Translator)
Info:	Harcourt (2005), Hardcover, 112 pages
Collections:	Your library, Read but unowned, read in 2010 (inactive)
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The House of Paper by Carlos María Domínguez (Author) (2004)

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▾Member reviews

English (23) Dutch (2) Spanish (1) German (1) Italian (1) All languages (28)

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Showing 1-5 of 23 (next | show all)

A book about books, the different meanings that books have for us. How an addiction for books can be taken too far, so maybe a bit of a precautionary tale as well. A very interesting book, with vivid and quotable prose. (

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Beamis12 | Nov 28, 2012 |

A literary, somewhat strange, novella in the best writing-tradition of Latin America about the danger of loving books too much. Three things I learned from this novella:
1. thank God I love reading books but don't feel the need to own them all;
2. LT may prove to be vital for genuine book-addicts;
3. Latin-American fiction and I, it's not meant to be. (

)

JustJoey4 | Jun 13, 2012 |

Lush. Domingues is excelent at introducing the world of books all around us as bricks or gravestones, you choose. One`s love towards books grows into affection easily. Great read. Highly recomended for all those printed word freaks out there.

maleya | Oct 29, 2011 |

A House of Paper is a whimisical, soulful paean to books and their lovers, and especially those of us "who have loved books not wisely but too well." Anyone who is not just a reader, but a lover of the book form; from the pathways of white through the text, to the smell of the ink and paper, to the different qualities of whiteness of the pages, to say nothing of the bindings,in other words, those of us who are not rushing out to buy Kindles, will find a hundred little moments in this book where she feels she has met a kndred spirit.

True to the South American soul there is that element of tilted reality which lends a piquant nature to the story, which is further complimented by the Peter Sis surreal illustrations (

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lucybrown | Jan 23, 2011 |

A story about how books can change a person's life ad also how a person can change the ''life'' of books. About the passion for books and a bibliophile's loss of reason that leads him to build a house out of his library, literaly: by cementing his books into the walls of his residence. A beautiful and at points disturbing story that left me pondering about the ephemeral nature of much of humanity's treasures. (

)

FPdC | May 24, 2010 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Domínguez, Carlos María	Author	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Sís, Peter	Illustrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Canonical title

Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to the English one.

Het papieren huis

Original title

La casa de papel

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Montevideo, Uruguay

Lagune von Rocha, Uruguay

Uruguay

Important events

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Awards and honors

Epigraph

Dedication

In memory of the great Joseph.

First words

One day in the spring of 1998, Bluma Lennon bought a secondhand copy of Emily Dickinson's poems in a bookshop in Soho, and as she reached the second poem on the first street corner, she was knocked down by a car.

Quotations

It is often much harder to get rid of books than it is to acquire them. They stick to us in that pact of need and oblivion we make with them, witnesses to a moment in our lives we will never see again.

The truth is that in the end the size of a library does matter.

"How many books do you have?" I asked

"To tell the truth, I've given up counting. But I think there must be around eighteen thousand. I've been buying books here and there ever since I can remember. To build up a library is to create a life. It's never just a random collection of books."

Last words

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▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

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▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0151011478, Hardcover)

Bluma Lennon, distinguished professor of Latin American literature at Cambridge, is hit by a car while crossing the street, immersed in a volume of Emily Dickinson's poems. Several months after her untimely demise, a package arrives for her from Argentina-a copy of a Conrad novel, encrusted in cement and inscribed with a mysterious dedication. Bluma's successor in the department (and a former lover) travels to Buenos Aires to track down the sender, one Carlos Brauer, who turns out to have disappeared.

The last thing known is that he moved to a remote stretch of the Uruguayan coastline and built himself a house out of his enormous and valuable library. How he got there, and why, is the subject of this seductive novel-part mystery, part social comedy, and part examination of all the many forms of bibliomania.

Charmingly illustrated by Peter Sís, The House of Paper is a tribute to the strange and passionate relationship between people and their books.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:05:18 -0500)

▾Library descriptions

"Bluma Lennon, distinguished professor of Latin American literature at Cambridge, is hit by a car while crossing the street, immersed in a volume of Emily Dickinson's poems. Several months after her untimely demise, a package arrives for her from Argentina - a copy or a Conrad novel, encrusted in cement and inscribed with a mysterious dedication. Bluma's successor in the department (and a former lover) travels to Buenos Aires to track down the sender, one Carlos Brauer, who turns out to have disappeared." "The last thing known is that he moved to a remote stretch of the Uruguayan coastline and built himself a house out of his enormous and valuable library. How he got there, and why, is the subject of this seductive novel - part mystery, part social comedy, and part examination of all the many forms of bibliomania." "Illustrated by Peter Sis, The House of Paper is a tribute to the strange and passionate relationship between people and their books."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)

(summary from another edition)