"A book read at different times recasts itself into multiple books": Sergio Pitol

Sergio Pitol Demeneghi

, recipient of Cervantes, Rulfo, Herralde, Alfonso Reyes and Xavier Villaurrutia prizes, passed away earlier today at his home in Xalapa, Veracruz, as confirmed to EL UNIVERSAL by his cousin and custodian, Luis Demeneghi .

"He died here, at home, there was no time to take him to the hospital", confirmed Demeneghi to this daily, while Pitol's closest decide the time and place of the late 2005 Cervantes Prize wake.

Mexico mourns Sergio Pitol

A graduate of Law and Letters at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) , Pitol toured Europe as from 1960 and was appointed as Mexico ambassador to then Czechoslovakia (current Czech Republic and Slovakia). He later became an editor and frequent contributor to cultural supplements in Mexico and abroad.

His novels have been regarded as style pursuits that resort to a refined, and often sharp, humor that offers a disenchanted look into reality.

Pitol balanced his writing with the translation of English, Czech, German and Russian writers into Spanish. He was first translated into English by George Henson for Deep Vellum publishers in 2015 as remembers Mexican writer based in New York, Valeria Luiselli :

The Mexican cultural community has reacted to Pitol's dead in social media channels like Twitter:

Mexican writer based in New York, Álvaro Enrigue Soler, has bid farewell to the "master teacher of teachers":

While George Henson , literary translator of Sergio Pitol and Elena Poniatowska, noted:

First publisher in English of Pitol's

2015, 2017 ( The Magician of Vienna , The Journey and The Art of Flight ), Deep Vellum has also reacted to Pitol's passing:

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