The latest addition to my website is Efraim Medina Reyes‘ Técnicas de masturbación entre Batman y Robin [Techniques of Masturbation between Batman and Robin]. Having just read La vita erotica dei superuomini (Erotic Lives of the Superheroes), this book seemed a natural follow-up. However, masturbation, Batman and Robin barely feature in this novel and the two superheroes are merely two women in disguise at an imagined fancy dress party. Efraim Medina Reyes has been hailed as one of the new voices of Colombian literature but, on the basis of this novel, García Márquez has nothing to fear. It tells what would appear to be a semi-autobiographical story about a novelist known as Sergio Bocafloja (=Loose Mouth) who tries and fails to put his difficult childhood behind him, find himself, find true love and become a successful novelist. He starts off in Cartagena, with a group of friends, where he meets and falls in love with Marianne but she eventually moves away. He heads off to Bogota but is called back when his mother becomes ill and he returns to his former life but sans Marianne. Medina Reyes throws in a guide to seducing woman, a few mini-screenplays, including one called Técnicas de masturbación entre Batman y Robin [Techniques of Masturbation between Batman and Robin], Instructions for Training Mammals and other non-narrative asides, none of which really work. I really hope that this not the future of the Colombian novel. They have shown that they can do well at football (for those not following, this is a reference to the World Cup) and I am sure that they can write better novels.