Rodrigo Rey Rosa

Rodrigo Rey Rosa (born November 4, 1958) is a Guatemalan writer.

Biography Rey Rosa was born in Guatemala City in 1958 into a middle-class family. He recalled that in his childhood he traveled extensively with his parents throughout Mexico and Central America, as well as through Europe. It wasn't until the age of eighteen that he traveled alone, just after finishing high school, to London, Germany (where he had to work to earn money to continue his travels), and Spain.

Upon his return, he lived one further year in Guatemala before leaving (in 1979) because of unrest, and emigrated to New York. There he enrolled at the School of Visual Arts, attracted by its summer writing workshop with Paul Bowles in Tangier. Rey Rosa dropped out in 1983.

Awards and honors

2004 Miguel Ángel Asturias National Prize in Literature 2013 Best Foreign Book Prize, China, for Los sordos. 2014 Best Translated Book Award, one of two runners-up for The African Shore, translated from the Spanish by Jeffrey Gray 2015 Premio José Donoso, Chile, for his life's work.

Works 1986 El cuchillo del mendigo (The Beggar's Knife) 1991 Cárcel de árboles (The Pelicari Project) 1992 Cárcel de árboles. El salvador de buques 1993 El salvador de buques 1994 Lo que soñó Sebastián 1996 Con cinco barajas 1996 El cojo bueno (The Good Cripple) 1997 Que me maten si… 1998 Ningún lugar sagrado 1999 La orilla africana (The African Shore) 2001 Piedras encantadas 2001 El tren a Travancore 2006 Caballeriza 2007 Otro zoo 2008 Siempre juntos y otros cuentos 2009 El material humano (Human Matter) 2011 Severina 2012 Los sordos 2014 La cola del dragón: no ficciones 2014 1986. Cuentos completos 2014 Otro zoo (Some Other Zoo) 2016 Tres novelas exóticas 2016 Fábula asiática (Chaos: A Fable) 2018 El país de Toó (The Country of Toó) 2020 Carta de un ateo guatemalteco al Santo Padre 2024 Metempsicosis

Rey Rosa's works have been translated into fifteen languages, including English, Italian, German, Dutch, Portuguese, and Japanese.