Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: In the Land of Giants
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1/1/1971
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: Spanish
http://gabimartinezblog.blogspot.com/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2002078493
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2002078493
HEADING: Martínez, Gabi, 1971-
000 00722cz a2200193n 450
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008 020828n| azannaabn |a aaa c
010 __ |a no2002078493
035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca05849072
040 __ |a NNC |b eng |e rda |c NNC |d NmU |d NcD
046 __ |f 1971
053 _0 |a PQ6713.A775
100 1_ |a Martínez, Gabi, |d 1971-
370 __ |a Barcelona (Spain)
400 1_ |a Martínez Cendero, Gabi, |d 1971-
670 __ |a Hora de Times Square, 2002: |b t.p. (Gabi Martínez) cover flap (b. 1971)
670 __ |a Voy, 2014: |b t.p. (Gabi Martínez) flap (b. 1971 in Barcelona)
670 __ |a Biblioteca de Catalunya NAF via VIAF, Sept. 12, 2014 |b (hdg.: Martínez, Gabi, 1971- ; x-ref: Martínez Cendero, Gabi, 1971- )
PERSONAL
Born January 1, 1971 in Barcelona, Spain.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author.
AWARDS:Book of the Year recipient, Qué Leer.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Gabi Martínez is a Spanish writer. Born in 1971 in Barcelona, Spain, Martínez has led a prolific literary career. He has published numerous fiction and nonfiction books and was included in Palgrave/Macmillan’s list of the top five writers of Spanish Vanguardism in the last twenty years. He is best known for his travel writing and literary journalism.
In The Land of Giants, Martínez’ first book to be translated from the author’s native Spanish to English, tells the story of peculiar and enigmatic adventurer Jordi Magraner. During his lifetime, Magraner gained fame for his obsessive search for the Yeti. His hunt took him into some of the most remote regions of the world, though he was never able to locate the rumored creature. Part biography, part travel story, the book is both about Jordi Magraner as well as Martínez’ experience researching the man.
Spanish by blood, Magraner spent his childhood in France. He developed a love of the wilderness at a young age and took a particular interest in the folklore of human-like creatures. This interest led him to travel to the Hindu Kush, a mountain region on the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Magraner searched for the legendary yeti, or barmanu, as locals call it, methodically. He compiled stories from locals, hunted down every bit of evidence he could find, and investigated every lead. In one instance, he tracked down a spot where someone had told him they heard groaning in the wilderness. When Magraner arrived, he discovered the same odd noise but was able to discern that the sound came from the movement of rocks rather than a living barmanu.
Magraner faced the difficulties one might expect from such an endeavor; he had to learn the languages of the locals and earn their trust, grow accustomed to the simple life of living in solitude in the mountains, and scrounge up funding to keep the project alive. But an additional and unexpected difficulty was the dangerous rise of the Taliban. Magraner first trekked to the Hindu Kush in 1987. By the early 2000s, he was warned against visiting the region by authorities in Chitral, who informed him that his life was in danger. The book opens with Magraner’s death, a murder that remains unsolved. Martínez attempts to uncover clues as to who was responsible for the stabbing, but he comes up emptyhanded.
Though Martínez praises Magraner’s adventurous spirit, he does not shy away from the man’s darker sides. One topic of focus in the book, and in Magraner’s life, was his sexuality. An entire chapter in the book is devoted to this topic, pulling from speculations and suggestions from individuals that knew him. When Magraner lived in the Hindu Kush region, he took a boy under his care. He would have the boy sleep in the same room as him, and when the young man started losing interest in school, Magraner kicked him out and took on another boy to replace him. This behavior was viewed with a suspicious eye, and there was talk that Magraner was predatorial.
The latter half of the book focuses on Martínez’ own personal journey as he investigates the adventurer’s life. He travels to the Hindu Kush and interviews everyone he is able to. After this, he travels to France to track down Magraner’s family, whose confidence he gains. Sue Hardiman in Nudge website wrote: “This was an engaging book and it conjured up a vivid picture of the Hindu Kush region and the challenges faced by those who live there.” “A nonfiction novel… a semi-fictional memoir… the boundaries are blurred much more than occasionally,” noted a contributor to ANZ LitLovers LitBlog website, adding: “It’s definitely a book for our times.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2018, review of In The Land of the Giants.
Spectator, April 29, 2017, Sara Wheeler, “The Curse of the Yeti,” review of In The Land of Giants, p. 33.
ONLINE
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog, https://anzlitlovers.com/ (July 4, 2017), Lisa Hill, review of In the Land of Giants.
Nudge, https://nudge-book.com/ (April 18, 2017), Sue Hardiman, review of In the Land of Giants.
Gabi Martínez
Gabi Martínez has published eleven fiction and non-fiction books. He is particularly well-known for his outstanding travel writing and literary journalism, and his novels have been selected as books of the year by Spanish literary magazine Qué Leer. Martinez was included in Palgrave/Macmillan’s list of the top five writers of Spanish Vanguardism in the last 20 years.
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Print Marked Items
Martinez, Gabi: IN THE LAND OF
GIANTS
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Martinez, Gabi IN THE LAND OF GIANTS Scribe (Adult Nonfiction) $19.95 7, 10 ISBN: 978-1-947534-
10-0
A story about a yeti-seeking adventurer in the Hindu Kush becomes much more.
In his first book to be translated into English, Martinez, a renowned Spanish journalist and author, brings
readers the mysterious tale of adventurer Jordi Magraner (1967-2002). Spanish by blood but raised in
France, Magraner had been in love with the wilderness since childhood, and he became particularly
entranced by humanoid creatures. This led him to the Hindu Kush in the borderlands of Afghanistan and
Pakistan to hunt for the legendary "barmanu, the local term for the yeti. Magraner became enamored with
the Kalash culture, a dying society of just a few thousand mostly impoverished people. Eventually, he ran
into trouble, particularly after 9/11. The story of Magraner's life--and his murder--is unquestionably
intriguing, but the author's choices in style and organization leave something to be desired. Intermittent,
pagelong chapters focus on the history of hunting "monsters," but these feel random and unrelated. There's
also a strange focus on Magraner's sexuality, including an entire chapter devoted to speculations by various
people in his circle. Furthermore, most of the photos included in the text lack captions or descriptions;
readers may glean the subjects from context, but it's a frustrating omission. However, in terms of pure
storytelling, the author does an impressive job of turning Magraner into one of the "giants" of the title. As
his subject's behavior becomes increasingly enigmatic, the narrative becomes far less about yeti hunting
than about not only solving his murder, but also understanding his charismatic and manic personality. As
one friend noted, "Jordi was manifold--nobody truly knew him." Martinez sets out to do just that, and he is
clearly passionate about his subject, dangerously traveling in Magraner's footsteps--but never arriving at the
truth.
In this self-described "non-fiction novel," Martinez weaves an interesting tale, but he takes too many
creative risks to satisfy all but the most fervent fans of Middle Eastern and/or Asian culture.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Martinez, Gabi: IN THE LAND OF GIANTS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A540723306/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cdf6dfcf.
Accessed 29 Sept. 2018.
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A540723306
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The curse of the Yeti
Sara Wheeler
Spectator.
333.9844 (Apr. 29, 2017): p33.
COPYRIGHT 2017 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)
http://www.spectator.co.uk
Full Text:
In the Land of Giants: Hunting Monsters in the Hindu Kush
by Gabi Martinez, translated from the Spanish by Daniel Hahn
Scribe, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 394
This book, according to its author Gabi Martinez, is 'a non-fiction novel'. It tells the story of Jordi Magraner,
a Morocco-born Spaniard who grew up in France. A largely self-taught zoologist and naturalist, Magraner
worked on humanitarian convoys in Afghanistan before devoting his life to searching for the Yeti among
the Kalash people in the Hindu Kush. He was, according to Martinez, 'Proud. Enigmatic. Multifarious.
Pagan. Passionate. A beast.' The book opens with his murder (which remains unsolved).
The Yeti, possibly a version of Neanderthal man, are the monsters of the title. In north Pakistan they are
known as barmanu. These bipeds never make an appearance. But Magraner kept the faith. He put together a
dossier on 'relict hominids', and made a study of the cranial bone, and was at one point invited to lecture on
the topic in Cambridge. The book includes boring details of the politics of 'the Neo-Darwinists who run
French scientific institutions'.
Martinez is a prolific author in his native Spain of both fiction and non-fiction. First published in Spanish in
2011, and fluently translated here by Daniel Hahn, In the Land of Giants benefits from the author's access to
Magraner's diaries and letters, and to photographs, which appear in the book.
Magraner first went to the valleys of north Pakistan in 1987. He semi-adopted two boys, one of whom, a
Nuristani, shared his bedroom. When this latter child showed a reluctance to go to school, Magraner hit
him. At this point in the story one loses all sympathy for its subject, and to a certain extent, all interest in
him. He went on to have other fist fights; at one point, putting words into his protagonist's mouth, Martinez
describes an Afghan whom Magraner beat up as 'that loathsome sack of shit'. Very nice.
Magraner lost his job at the Alliance Franpaise in Peshawar, the nearest city to his base at Chitral in the
valleys, over allegations of paedophilia. Martinez is not judgmental. 'He had found in Pakistan,' he writes of
the Yeti-hunter, 'a place where he could live as he wanted, free to enjoy nature, his profession, his sexuality.'
I would have liked a bit more on the pagan Kalash, an ancient people who have whiter skins than the
Muslims who live around Chitral. Martinez claims that Magraner wanted to 'rescue' the Kalash. At any rate,
he founded a group for the study and safeguarding of the cultures of the Hindu Kush. The nascent Taliban
float in and out of the picture, and more on regional politics would have been welcome too.
Echoes sound through these pages of the hopeless idealism of Chris McCandless, the subject of Jon
Krakauer's Into the Wild, and of Tim Treadwell, eaten by the grizzly bears he championed in Alaska and the
subject of a documentary by Werner Herzog. We are told that Magraner 'yearned to spread a kind of purity,
a truth so clean and faultless that it would distinguish him somehow'.
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The authorities in Chitral had advised him to leave the valleys months before his death in 2002, 'because his
life was in peril'. Some saw the search for the mythical barmanu as a front for espionage. It is still unclear
whether his murder (he was stabbed) was political or a crime of passion.
Martinez ably conjures the scent of juniper, the taste of black, salty tea and the sight of a 40-donkey convoy
heading to Panjshir. As well as slabs of invented conservation, there are discussions about the
characteristics of a monster, whether animal or human. Throughout, the author is preoccupied with
Magraner's inner life, constantly trying to prove the man's brilliance. But it doesn't work. Magraner emerges
as an unpleasant freak. 'His life is a metaphor for many people's lives,' Martinez pronounces. Is it?
The author enters the story himself in his quest for the truth, visiting the Hindu Kush and interviewing
everyone there, as well as Magraner's family in France, whose confidence he gains. He is a diligent
researcher. His own journey takes over towards the end, as he searches for clues: 'Just like Jordi was
seeking the Yeti, so I am seeking Jordi. We are a dream of chains and hopes. Where will it end?' Where
indeed?
Caption: A Kalash girl in traditional dress
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Wheeler, Sara. "The curse of the Yeti." Spectator, 29 Apr. 2017, p. 33. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A498477810/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=37270690.
Accessed 29 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498477810
In the Land of Giants by Gabi Martinez
Review published on April 18, 2017.
This is a journey in the footsteps of a remarkable adventurer and natural historian – Jordi Magraner. High in the mountains on the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Jordi set out to uncover proof of the legendary “Barmanu” or “Yeti”. However, he becomes side-tracked by the plight of the local Kalesh people, who are struggling to survive in the political upheaval of one of the world’s most troubled regions.
What Jordi ultimately discovered was unfortunately not a real monster but the monsters that live in ourselves and others. His life was tragically cut short as he was murdered in his own home.
The author examines the life of Magraner through interviews with family and friends. The picture he creates of the man is an affectionate one, but he does not shy away from sharing all the truths and rumours about the man Jordi was. Personally, I did not feel a great deal of sympathy for Jordi at times. In many ways, he comes across as “his own worst enemy” – regularly falling out with friends and getting into arguments on a frequent basis. However, he was a passionate advocate of the Kalesh and was a gifted natural historian. The author also makes it clear that although Jordi exasperated his friends and family, they never gave up on him and his death was a tragedy they still cannot come to terms with.
This was an engaging book and it conjured up a vivid picture of the Hindu Kush region and the challenges faced by those who live there. It would make an interesting read for a book group.
Sue Hardiman 4/4
In the Land of Giants by Gabi Martinez
Scribe UK 9781925228717 hbk Apr 2017
In the Land of the Giants, by Gabi Martinez, translated by Daniel Hahn #BookReview
It’s taken me ages to read this book, nearly three weeks, and it’s only 390 pages long. It’s partly because I’m also reading other things as well but it’s also I kept getting distracted by the other issues the book raises. It’s not just a memoir of an eccentric adventurer who was murdered in a remote area of Pakistan, and it’s not just a travel book. It’s also a book that plays with the conventions of these genres.
Jordi Magraner was an adventurer who fell in love with the Hindu Kush, and, it seems to me, at different times varied his reasons for being there. He was a student of the natural world, and heard stories about the legendary barmanu – known to most of us as the yeti – and he set off to see if he could find it. But for quite long periods of time, he got involved in other quests as well…
The author would have his readers believe that the quest for the barmanu/yeti is not as crazy as it seems.
One day in 1949, a doctor of zoology called Bernard Houvelmans opens the Saturday Evening Post and reads an article entitled ‘There May Be Dinosaurs’. He’s wary when he sees that it’s signed by a writer he trusts. Then, amid the claims made in the text, he reads the names of researchers he also considers serious, and by the end he has found that he needs to look into the information.
Seven years later, he publishes On the Track of Unknown Animals, introducing a series of animals discovered to date in the twentieth century. Most of them are pretty big. There you’ll find the okapi, the coelacanth, the Paraguayan peccary, the pygmy hippopotamus, the Cambodian wild ox, and the Komodo dragon.
Heuvelmans is a scientist, he considers himself a scientist, the animals he writes about exist ‘in reality’, but he has demonstrated that many of them were only located after conversations with indigenous people who gave assurances of their existences by recounting stories, describing them. Before they were discovered, these animals were no more than legends to westerners, or the victims of extinction. In which case why should we not believe other stories told about fugitive beings? (p.32)
I was immediately distracted by the thought that in this era of fake news, would we believe it if there were reports of a yeti being found in the mountains of the Hindu Kush? Perhaps that would depend on where the reports came from. If trusted sources like the ABC and the BBC reported it, would we believe it? Or would we think that they were sincere but had been hoodwinked? Would we disbelieve it altogether or would we accept the revelation that the mythical creature had turned out to be real?
How you respond to this idea depends on whether you think we have mapped our world fully or whether you think that just as other species have been found in remote uncharted places, a yeti might possibly exist.
Well, Jordi Magraner did believe it could be real, and with extraordinary determination he set out to harvest the stories, disprove the reports of mysterious groanings that turned out to be the movement of rocks, and to hunt out every bit of evidence he could find. The difficulties he faced – funding his project, learning the languages and finding trusted translators, living a simple life in the mountains and so on – are the stuff you might expect in a memoir such as this. But what complicated everything he did was the contemporaneous rise of the Taliban and the distrust of strangers, the paranoia and the religious extremism that arose from that. Because the area where he was hunting was where the Kalash lived, a people who were not Muslim and who were at risk of having their culture obliterated by the Taliban’s determination to enforce their religious rule. Over the long period of time that Jordi was on his quest, he vacillated between finding his barmanu and saving the Kalash, a project which got him into trouble in more ways than one.
Amongst other risky things, he took on the care and education of a boy called Shamsur, which led to suspicions about Jordi’s sexuality and possibly predatory behaviour towards the boy. These were exacerbated when Shamsur rejected study and in adolescence became an ungrateful hash-smoking layabout. The suspicions hardened when Jordi then took on another young boy as a replacement. The author, who admired Jordi for his adventurous spirit but is not writing a hagiography, presents conflicting statements from numerous people who knew Jordi, leading to the reader’s conclusion that nobody knows for sure, but that rumours were rife… and under the encroaching rule of the Taliban this was a risky situation indeed.
The story begins with Jordi’s death, which was obviously an execution by a skilled professional. The book ends with the author’s inconclusive efforts to find out what really happened and why the police investigation went nowhere. But in between the quest to find a lost paradise gets bogged down in numerous examples of Jordi’s intemperate nature, his impatience with authorities who try to warn him about the dangers of his project, and his financial difficulties which lead to debts – a very risky situation to be in when, after 9/11 tourism dries up and everyone is short of money.
The book also plays with the conventions of life stories by including imagined sequences which offer an intimate insight into Jordi’s thoughts, his conversations and his behaviours. This is what the author says about that on the last page:
There is a first version of this book in which everything is described exactly as it happened. In the one you have just read, I preferred to change a few names so as not to injure any sensibilities and, as far as possible, to protect those involved. Occasionally I have also recreated the unfolding of episodes that had only been conveyed to me in the barest facts. I put in some details, atmosphere, tension, colour… without ever distorting the ultimate meaning of the message I received. These minimal recreations are what make this book a non-fiction novel.
I have dedicated nearly three years to a story in which, as you have seen, I ended up risking my own life. None of my literary ‘interventions’ detract from the ultimate truth of everything I have written here. I would have been the greatest of fools if I had done anything to jeopardise so much effort, so much reality. (p. 389)
A non-fiction novel… a semi-fictional memoir… the boundaries are blurred much more than ‘occasionally’, I thought. It’s definitely a book for our times.
Author: Gabi Martinez
Title: In the Land of the Giants, Hunting Monsters in the Hindu Kush
Translated from the Spanish by Daniel Hahn
Publisher: Scribe Publications, 2017, first published in 2011 as Sólo para gigantes
ISBN: 9781925321630
Review copy courtesy of Scribe Publications