Writers Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma and María de Lourdes Victoria will present a free book talk on Juan Rulfo’s 1955 novel, “Pedro Páramo” at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, June 7, at the Vashon Library.

The novel is a haunting masterpiece about love, power and the lives of the dead. It helped inspire Gabriel García Márquez to write “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and was adapted as a film for Netflix.

Yet this highly acclaimed classic remains poorly known outside the Spanish-speaking world.

“The book has been translated into English several times,” Pruiksma said, “but no one has yet been able to capture the enigmatic poetry of its prose.”

Pruiksma said he fell in love with the book more than 20 years ago during a Fulbright year in India, and he has been working on his own not-yet-published translation ever since.

“This talk will be the first time I’m speaking about my translation publicly,” he said.

Pruiksma also received a 4Culture grant to write a book — also still unpublished — about his experiences translating “Pedro Páramo,” and will read an excerpt and discuss what makes the novel so mesmerizing with writer María de Lourdes Victoria, in both English and Spanish.

“Pedro Páramo is a book I keep on my night stand,” Victoria said. She is looking forward to visiting the island and sharing her perspectives on the novel, fresh from a book tour in Mexico.

Victoria is an award-winning author whose work has been published internationally in English and Spanish. A native of Veracruz, Mexico, she lives and writes in Washington and California where she also teaches narrative workshops.

Her most recent novel, “La Maletita Azul,” has just been released by Planeta. Her third novel, “La Casa de los Secretos,” received second place as the best novel in Spanish at the International Book Awards in Los Angeles, California. She is also the founder of Seattle Escribe, the largest organization of writers who write in Spanish in the state of Washington.

“I’m delighted that María will be joining us,” Pruiksma said. “I’ve been enjoying her ‘La Casa de los Secretos,’ which is set in Oaxaca, the very place I began learning Spanish.” He added that her writing and Rulfo’s alike offer a feast for the senses and is particularly glad that the library will be serving refreshments from Zamorana.

“Come enjoy something delicious for both the ear and the belly,” he said.

When pressed to share a bit more about why he would spend more than 20 years translating this novel, Pruiksma said, “It seems to be part of my fate to fall in love with lyric works that have been poorly translated into English.”

The same year that he began studying “Pedro Páramo,” in India, he also began studying the classical Tamil masterpiece of ethics and poetry called the Kural, his translation of which was recently honored by the government of Tamil Nadu at the 2025 Chennai International Book Fair.

“In 2003, I had recently learned Spanish and wanted a book to read out loud each morning before turning to the day’s Tamil studies,” he explained. “So I brought a copy with me to the house of my Tamil teacher, Dr. K. V. Ramakoti, with whom I was staying. Little did I know what an odyssey Rulfo’s book would take me on — an odyssey that continues to this day, with as many twists and turns as Rulfo’s narrative itself.”

Registration is not required to attend the free book talk on June 7.