Translator's Introduction to The Double Man — Web Exclusive
By Jen Hofer
The following excerpt is chapter 19 of the 33- chapter novella, La magia de la inmortalidad ("Immortality Spell"). The protagonist, Magdulena (who appears only tangentially in this chapter), is a 13th-century sorceress who is intent on discovering the means to immortality through alchemy. Based on Beatriz Escalante's extensive research into ancient alchemy and numerology, the novella is written in a multi-functioning form: it consists of both a strong forward-moving narrative, typical of tales revolving around any kind of quest or grail, and shifting levels of sub-narrative that fold back onto one another in a revolving, repetitive process not unlike the processes Magdalena employs in her search for immortality.
In this chapter, Sebastian, a townsman who has fallen in love with Magdalena, seeks to capture the "double man" from the sideshow caravan where he works, so that Magdalena can make use ofhis body in her experiments; she has become convinced that she needs "the diaphragm shared by two souls" in order to attain immortality. In his awkward haste to perform the task Magdalena has assigned him, Sebastian sets off a confusion resulting in a fire that destroys most of the caravan, and unleashes a wind of ill-omen that reaches the entire town. This chapter marks the first moment in the novel when the town as a whole begins to be implicated in Magdalena's quest. The involvement of the town and its people, its Duke and its Good Father, in Magdalena's explorations, engenders other images offire in the book, most notably the fires of witch-burning.
Beatriz Escalante was born in Mexico City in 1961. She grew up there and in Mérida, in the Yucatán. Escalante has published three books of short stories, two novels, and a book on Spanish grammar for writers, and has edited three collections of contemporary Mexican short fiction. She has also translated into Spanish and anthologized a book of short stories from the United States. She currently lives in Mexico City, dividing her time between writing and presenting lectures and writers' workshops all over Mexico.
Jen Hofer is a poet, translator, and bookmaker. Her publications include Lead & Tether, Ivory Black, a translation of Negro marfil by Myriam Moscona, and translations of books by Guatemalan poet Alan Mills and Mexican poet Dolores Dorantes. Hofer teaches in the Graduate Writing Program at Otis College and in the low-residency BFA Program at Goddard College.