The latest addition to my website is César Aira‘s El presidente [The President] The eponymous president (never named) is president of Argentina. He seems to live an entirely solitary life in the Casa Rosada – unmarried with seemingly no contact with staff/colleagues. He goes out at night wandering the streets and is not recognised though … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill‘s Los pichiciegos (Malvinas Requiem)The novel focuses on a group of Argentinian deserters during the Falklands War in 1982. They have managed to hide away underground but are worried about both their own side and the British. They are ruled with a rod of iron by … Read more
The latest addition to my website is César Aira‘s Festival (Festival) and El juego de los mundos (Game of the Worlds), both published in one book called Festival Festival is about a film festival celebrating a Belgian film director who is hailed as an original artist though he seems only to have made B-list science … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Laura Alcoba‘s Par la forêt (Through the Forest). Laura Alcoba was born in Argentina but lives in France and writes in French. This novel tells the story of Griselda who has to flee Argentina with her(married) lover, Claudio, and they go to France. Initially he stays with his … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sara Gallardo‘s Enero (January). The novel is set on an Argentinian farm and we follow the story of the just sixteen Nefer, the youngest of three sisters. The oldest, Porota has recently married and at the wedding, Nefer was so annoyed at Negro, to whom she is attracted, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Pola Oloixarac‘s Mona (Mona). Our heroine/narrator is Mona Tarrile-Byrne, a Peruvian writer. Her first novel was well received and helped get her onto a doctoral programme at Stanford. Her second novel and, indeed,her personal life are not going so well. She has been nominated to receive the prestigious … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Juan José Saer‘s El limonero real (The Regal Lemon Tree). the character in this book – an extended family celebrating New Year’s Eve – live on a series of interconnected islands. The main character, Wenceslao, is married to an unnamed woman. They lost their only son some six … Read more
The latest addition to my website is César Aira‘s El divorcio (The Divorce). The book is about a lot of things but not divorce, except for the title and the fact that our US narrator Kent is recently divorced. Kent heads to Buenos Aires for a month and, while in a café, the owner opens … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Martín Caparrós‘Sinfin [Endless]. The key theme of the book is immortality. We follow the development from the present time to 2072 of a system called 天, Chinese for heaven, which is a fairly sophisticated way of transferring the human brain to a smart machine, replete with artificial intelligence … Read more
The latest addition to my website is César Aira‘s Margarita. This is not one of Aira’s best. The narrator, presumably based at least in part on Aira himself, is, just eighteen, and is to leave his hometown of Coronel Pringles (Aira’s hometown) to study in Buenos Aires. As the date approaches he is suddenly overcome … Read more