The Secret of Fame

The Secret of Fame: The Literary Encounter in an Age of Distraction / Translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer / 182-page hardback / 4.5" x 7" / ISBN 978-1-58988-038-2 / Publication Date: May 2008 "Gabriel Zaid is a marvelously elegant and playful writer—a cosmopolitan critic with sound judgment and a light touch. He is a jewel of Latin American letters, which is no small thing to be. Read him—you'll see."—Paul Berman In So Many Books, Gabriel Zaid explored the predicament in which all "unrepentant readers" find themselves today, when "the human race publishes a book every thirty seconds"—more books than any of us can even contemplate, much less read. Now, in The Secret of Fame, this "playful celebrant of literary proliferation" (New Yorker) examines the methods and motivations of literary fame-seekers from ancient times to the present day. He shines a critical, yet humorous, light on today’s book world, whose denizens often find it "more interesting to talk about writers than to