{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0826514065?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0826514065","authors":["Maria Antonia Garces"],"book_id":"9780826514066","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/cervantes-in-algiers-9780826514066","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780826514066.jpg?v=10e1c1c63099e456","description":"Returning to Spain after fighting in the Battle of Lepanto and other Mediterranean campaigns against the Turks, the soldier Miguel de Cervantes was captured by Barbary pirates and taken captive to Algiers. The five years he spent in the Algerian bagnios or prison-houses (1575-1580) made an indelible impression on his works. From the first plays and narratives written after his release to his posthumous novel, the story of Cervantes's traumatic experience continuously speaks through his writings. Cervantes in Algiers offers a comprehensive view of his life as a slave and, particularly, of the lingering effects this traumatic experience had on his literary production. No work has documented in such vivid and illuminating detail the socio-political world of sixteenth-century Algiers, Cervantes's life in the prison-house, his four escape attempts, and the conditions of his final ransom. Garces's portrait of a sophisticated multi-ethnic culture in Algiers, moreover, is likely to open up new discussions about early modern encounters between Christians and Muslims. By bringing together evidence from many different sources, historical and literary, Garces reconstructs the relations between Christians, Muslims, and renegades in a number of Cervantes's writings. The idea that survivors of captivity need to repeat their story in order to survive (an insight invoked from Coleridge to Primo Levi to Dori Laub) explains not only Cervantes's storytelling but also the book that theorizes it so compellingly. As a former captive herself (a hostage of Colombian guerrillas), the author reads and listens to Cervantes with another ear.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780826514066","publication_date":"20020925","publisher":"Vanderbilt University Press","slug":"cervantes-in-algiers","subtitle":"A Captive's Tale","title":"Cervantes in Algiers"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004280","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Iberian Lit Crit","score":0.7743,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"DRA004040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Spanish & Portuguese Plays","score":0.732,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004100","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Caribbean & Latin American Criticism","score":0.7079,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004280","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Iberian Lit Crit","score":0.7743,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"DRA004040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Spanish & Portuguese Plays","score":0.732,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004100","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Caribbean & Latin American Criticism","score":0.7079,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004280","confidence_band":"high","label":"Iberian Lit Crit","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Iberian Lit Crit","score":0.7743,"slug":"iberian-lit-crit"},{"label":"Spanish & Portuguese Plays","score":0.732,"slug":"spanish-portuguese-plays"},{"label":"Caribbean & Latin American Criticism","score":0.7079,"slug":"caribbean-latin-american-criticism"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in Cervantes’s captivity and its effects on his writing","Readers exploring early modern relations between Christians and Muslims"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Diana de Armas Wilson"],"book_id":"9780198160052","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780198160052.jpg?v=72cc6bc9be1de27e","score":0.7399,"title":"Cervantes, the Novel, and the New World","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780198160052"},{"authors":["Miguel de Cervantes","Philip Krummrich","Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra"],"book_id":"9780826506023","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780826506023.jpg?v=ca89a01eaf514ffe","score":0.7277,"title":"The Gallant Spaniard","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780826506023"},{"authors":["Roberto González Echevarría"],"book_id":"9780292704176","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780292704176.jpg?v=103fc2c46a2edcc8","score":0.67,"title":"Alejo Carpentier","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780292704176"},{"authors":["Fernando Cervantes"],"book_id":"9781101981269","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781101981269.jpg?v=c667d83e01b9d6db","score":0.6668,"title":"Conquistadores","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781101981269"},{"authors":["Nora Berend"],"book_id":"9781639366460","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781639366460.jpg?v=d8ef67780fb70491","score":0.663,"title":"El Cid","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781639366460"},{"authors":["Bruce R. Burningham"],"book_id":"9780826516022","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780826516022.jpg?v=cf2dfb6a5dd7691e","score":0.6605,"title":"Tilting Cervantes","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780826516022"},{"authors":["Manuel De Costa Fontes"],"book_id":"9781557533487","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781557533487.jpg?v=5794c405cd246133","score":0.6598,"title":"The Art of Subversion in Inquisitorial Spain","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781557533487"},{"authors":["Enriqueta Zafra","Jesús Mora"],"book_id":"9781487529383","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781487529383.jpg?v=8663fedde9e08eed","score":0.6589,"title":"Lazarillo De Tormes","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781487529383"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:hispanic studies"],"label":"Studies","score":0.0285,"slug":"studies"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Captivity and its literary legacy, Early modern Christian-Muslim encounters, Cervantes’s life in Algiers.","Themes: Studies.","Reading lane: Iberian Lit Crit and Spanish & Portuguese Plays."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.91,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in Cervantes’s captivity and its effects on his writing","Readers exploring early modern relations between Christians and Muslims"],"themes":["Captivity and its literary legacy","Early modern Christian-Muslim encounters","Cervantes’s life in Algiers"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":9,"goodreads_ratings_count":12,"goodreads_reviews_count":3,"quality_score":0.8428}}