The latest addition to my website is Nicolás Giacobone‘s El cuaderno tachado (The Crossed-Out Notebook). Giacabone is a scriptwriter so it is not surprising that his first novel tells the story of a scriptwriter, Pablo Betances. Pablo had wanted to be a musician but did not make it so became a writer and then a scriptwriter. He had written for the greatest living Argentinian film director, Santiago Salvatierra. He was flattered when Salvatierra invited him to his house, so he told no-one, so no-one now knows that Salvatierra has kidnapped him and he has been locked in Salvatierra’s basement for five years, writing scripts. We follow his scriptwriting but also his writing in a notebook which, as the title, tells us, he crosses out. He ruminates (on Salvatierra, his life, art), he masturbates and he sleeps but still keeps on writing and is still stuck in the basement.