EL VUELO DE LA ALONDRA - Mario Bencastro Espaol: En esta intrigante novela el autor combina su experiencia de pintor con su inventiva literaria para ofrecernos una "ficcin pictrica," en que la realidad y el arte convergen formando un mundo alucinante. Un experto en arte, Marc Douanier, es enviado a San Salvador por una subastadora de Par-s para adquirir la obra de un artista local, que la cr-tica internacional califica como "magistral expresin del realismo fantstico del nuevo mundo" y est siendo solicitada por importantes galer-as, museos y colecciones privadas que incrementan rpidamente su valor monetario. Para llevar a cabo su misin el experto debe sortear situaciones extraas como pinturas robadas y falsificadas, y sectas secretas que dificultan su tarea, encima de que el pa-s del artista se encuentra en una convulsin pol-tica y social que le recuerda la histrica revolucin francesa que conmocion a su propia tierra hace siglos. Marc Douanier trae el especial encargo de comprar una pintura del artista salvadoreo para la coleccin del Museo de Louvre, pero antes debe resolver un apremiante misterio: Por qu' los cuadros quedan en blanco? Qu' sucede con los personajes de las pinturas? Se escapan ellos de su prisin de colores siguiendo al pueblo que lucha por liberarse de un opresivo sistema? El lema de Benjam-n Caas "Pinto la realidad como yo la imagino" colorea estas pginas, y sus personajes pictricos cobran vida en este mural novelesco. "Benjam-n Caas fue un virtuoso, un pintor in'dito, reflexivo, que dej una herencia al arte latinoamericano y al mundo." -B'lgica Rodr-guez, Directora del Museo de Arte de las Am'ricas, Washington DC, EEUU, (1988-1994). www.MarioBencastro.org English: In this intriguing novel the author combines his experience as a painter with his literary inventiveness to offer us a "pictorial fiction," where reality and art converge to create a hallucinatory world. An art expert, Marc Douanier, is sent to San Salvador by an auction house from Paris to acquire paintings of a local artist, acclaimed by international critics as "a master of expression of the new world's fantastic realism," and whose work is being bought by important galleries, museums and private collections rapidly increasing its monetary value. To accomplish his mission, the expert must deal with difficult events such as stolen and falsified paintings, secret sects interfering in his assignment, on top of being in a land going through a political and social convulsion that reminds him of the historical French revolution that shocked his own country centuries ago. Marc Douanier also brings a special request from the Louvre Museum: to buy a painting by the Salvadoran artist for its collection. But he must first resolve a mystery: Why do the paintings suddenly turn completely white? What happens to the images in the paintings? Do they escape from their prison of colors following the local people that fight to free themselves from an oppressive regime? The artistic concept of Benjamin Caas: "I paint reality as I imagine it" colors these pages, and in this literary mural his pictorial characters come to life. "Benjamin Caas was a virtuoso, a fabulous painter, reflexive, that left a heritage to Latin American art and the world." -B'lgica Rodr-guez, Director of the Art Museum of the Americas, Washington DC, USA, (1988-1994). www.MarioBencastro.org