Ardiente paciencia

The novel Burning Patience (Spanish: Ardiente paciencia ) was written by the Chilean writer Antonio Skarmeta. He thus has the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and his postman a monument.

The novel's title derives from Rimbaud Quote " At dawn we will, armed with a burning patience, entering cities. " From.

Action

Mario Jiménez, a 17 - year-old boy from a Chilean fisherman's family begins to work as a letter carrier, according to the counsel of his father. Its only customer is the poet Pablo Neruda, which in the course of the novel connects him an increasingly close friendship. Parallel to this storyline, Mario falls in love with the beautiful Beatriz Gonzales, which he finally wins through metaphors of his friend Neruda. Beatriz and Mario get married and have a son.

Pablo Neruda is finally ambassador in Paris, while Mario and Beatriz work according to the election of Salvador Allende in the pub by Beatriz ' mother.

Neruda finally comes seriously ill back from Paris. Meanwhile, the coup of Augusto Pinochet has begun. Mario, who reveals himself as a communist, the poet must not visit.

Finally Neruda dies, the rights in Chile seize power and Mario is arrested.

The epilogue plays "Years later " in a café. He is the narrator and a Chilean, who was in Mexico in exile. The narrator asks the exiles, if he had heard of an award-winning poem of Chileans. This negates this question. The work ends with the fact that he ordered a coffee and those "bitter" takes. This is an allusion to the fate of Mario.

Miscellaneous

Now the only legitimate German translation is that of Willi Zurbrüggen, 1985 by Piper -Verlag, Munich and Zurich appeared, for the first time. The book also developed in the German-speaking area quickly became a bestseller and experienced only by Piper -Verlag to 1994 twelve editions with a total of 107,000 copies.

Antonio Skármetas novel was filmed twice, once in 1983 under the direction of novelist himself under the original title, back in 1994 with the title " The Postman " with Philippe Noiret, directed by Michael Radford.

The novel " Ardiente Paciencia " since 2008 asterisk topic in Baden-Württemberg in Spanish for High School.