Restless Books Present WHERE THE BIRD SINGS BEST by Alejandro Jodorowsky

Filmmaker, Tarot master, and writer Alejandro Jodorowsky's "psychomagical" memoir Where the Bird Sings Best is forthcoming from Restless Books. We couldn't be more excited to see an excerpt from the book in the latest issue of VICE, marking the first time that the legendary artist's epic autobiography has appeared in English.The memoir is now available for pre-order, and from August 18th through August 24th, you can get it for just $6.99.

When Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky released his surrealist masterworks El Topo and The Holy Mountain in the 1970s, he revolutionized cinema and launched the "midnight movie" phenomenon. A giant not just in the film world but also in theatre, comics, and the Tarot, Jodorowsky has influenced artists as diverse as John Lennon, Marina Abramovi? and Kanye West.

In 2014, he starred in the acclaimed documentary Jodorowsky's Dune and released his first film in 23 years, The Dance of Reality, an autobiographical picture that mines the social and political terrain of his childhood in pre-war Chile. But the often-reclusive director did not disappear entirely during that two-decade absence from the screen. In fact, Jodorowsky was busy enhancing his reputation as a major Latin American novelist, revered everywhere from Mexico to Argentina. Finally, Restless Books is bringing those important works to the English-speaking world, beginning with his epic family saga, Where the Bird Sings Best.

This remarkable book has been compared to Marquéz's One Hundred Years of Solitude in its imaginative scope and historical sweep. The story of the Jodorowskys' emigration to Chile from the Ukraine, Where the Bird Sings Best explores family legends, the turmoil of history, Jewish philosophy, political violence, mysticism, passion, lust, loss, and the joyful absurdity of everyday life. A sui generis epic, Jodorowsky's novel expands the classic immigration story to mythic proportions.

Alejandro Jodorowsky was born to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants in Tocopilla, Chile. From an early age, he became interested in mime and theater; at the age of 23, he left for Paris to pursue the arts, and has lived there ever since. A friend and companion of Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor, he founded the Panic movement and has directed several classic films of this style, including The Holy Mountain, El Topo and Santa Sangre. A mime artist, specialist in the art of tarot, and prolific author, he has written novels, poetry, short stories, essays, and over thirty successful comic books, working with such highly regarded comic book artists as Moebius and Bess. Restless Books will be publishing three of Jodorowsky's best-known books for the first time in English: Donde mejor canta un pájaro (Where the Bird Sings Best), El niño del jueves negro (The Son of Black Thursday), and Albina y los hombres perro (Albina and the Dog Men).

To post a comment, you must register and login.