Published by Jorge Pinto Books Translated by Gretta K. Siebentritt from the Spanish original edition, Gracias por la Muerte.

Buy the book on Amazon.com

Download the book from iTunes

Marta Merajver-Kurlat was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. An early attraction to the ways in which mankind tells its own history encouraged her to undertake studies in myths, language, psychology, and psychoanalysis. After spending several years in Europe, with brief sojourns in the U.S., she returned to her homeland, where she works as a translator and teaches English and American language and literature.

Short Film

Lucas Meyer arrives home from a college ski trip to find his mother Sylvia, a successful lawyer, dead in their Manhattan apartment. He calls his estranged father Jamie, who has not set foot in the apartment in years.

Jamie soon discovers a suicide note in Sylvia’s bedroom, and the father and son learn just how little they knew the woman they loved.

Feature Film

Lucas Meyer arrives home from a college ski trip to find that his mother Sylvia, a successful lawyer, has committed suicide in their Manhattan apartment.

In the aftermath of the funeral, Lucas stumbles on a box of letters written by Sylvia but never mailed. Conveyed through staggering flashbacks, each letter to her mother, lover, and ex-husband uncovers a meaningful piece in the puzzle of Sylvia’s accomplished but tormented life. At turns angered and heartbroken by his mother’s words, Lucas reaches out to his father and the closest friends of his mother to begin to understand how little he knew the crazy stranger who gave him life.

Reminiscent of Woody Allen’s urban dramas and the intricate narrative time-play of Citizen Kane, Just Toss the Ashes soberly lays bare the pathos beneath the masks that we all wear.