About Author Marta Merajver:
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I spent my early youth in Europe and America, studying and working, intent on feeling the pulse of life in countries very different from mine.
Greek mythology, in the shape of a book my father gave me on my eighth birthday, became my passion. From there I approached other ancient religions and discovered how humankind finds answers to appease its fears of what cannot be known.
With a degree in Translation and another in English Language and Literature, I experienced the joys of teaching high school in Argentina. At the same time, I had a long and most rewarding career at the Asociacion Argentina de Cultura Inglesa (Buenos Aires), where I was in charge of Cambridge examinations and lectured in Language, Contemporary Literature and Drama, Linguistics, Literary Translation and Simultaneous Translation.
San Diego State University G-TELP examinations for foreign students were my shared responsibility in Argentina and Uruguay from 1990 to 2003.
My love of languages drove me to learn French, German, and Italian. As an addict to reading, I enjoyed reading my favorite authors in the original versions.
In my thirties, I enrolled at the School of Psychology, Universidad de Buenos Aires, and was soon fascinated by the psychoanalytic approach. Several prestigious psychoanalytical associations have invited me to guest-lecture.
I have translated countless books and papers from and into English. Translation involves the rewrite of a text, and offers excellent lessons in self-discipline and conciseness. When I started writing, all of the above stood me in good stead.
Marta
To learn more, click here to go to her website.
About Just Toss the Ashes
Sylvia Meyer, a successful lawyer, has committed suicide. This drives her son Lucas to trace back the paths that may provide him with clues to find answers beyond her factual decision to die. He suddenly realizes that he did not actually know neither who his mother was or how she had lived. A counterpoint of past and present voices whispering into his ears outline a tormented image in which the blending of background and figure enables us to recognize masks that we all perhaps wear but dare not name. ++++ Marta Merajver Kurlat's exquisitely written tale of a young man's journey towards understanding his mother's painful life and suicide is a hard novel to put down. The book's narrative is vivid, and thought-provoking psychological dimensions contribute to a literary piece that will engage serious readers. -Virginia Shiller, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, New Haven, Connecticut "What's the point of living if you're nothing?... This novel does not attempt to provide specific answers to this question. This novel, in fact, acts as a trigger. On second thoughts, this is an understatement. The novel is a machine gun targeting the purpose of life: not merely the sense of the protagonist's life, but that of the reader's. Haven't we all pondered about this question at least once during our own lives?" ?- Santiago Vergara, Writer "In the course of Sylvia's bitter fight against life, the birth of a son bears witness to the love of a man for the body that this woman rejects. When she jumps into an abyss from where no return is possible, her absence urges this only son to seek the truth in the world of demons that have tormented his mother's existence."
What readers are saying:
~ Ms. Merajver-Kuriat's writing is insightful and non-judgemental.
~ I am most impress by the author's analysis of despair.
~ Marta's treatise of the tragic and complex subject of suicide is marvelously executed here in novel form.
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