Shantytown
César Aira
(Author)
Chris Andrews
(Translator)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
Maxi, a middle-class, directionless ox of a young man who helps the trash pickers of Buenos Aires's shantytown, attracts the attention of a corrupt, trigger-happy policeman who will use anyone -- including two innocent teenage girls -- to break a drug ring that he believes is operating within the slum. A strange new drug, a brightly lit carousel of a slum, the kindness of strangers, gunplay... no matter how serious the subject matter, and despite Aira's "fascination with urban violence and the sinister underside of Latin American politics" (The Millions), Shantytown, like all of Aira's mesmerizing work, is filled with wonder and mad invention.
Product Details
Price
$15.95
$14.83
Publisher
New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publish Date
November 20, 2013
Pages
162
Dimensions
5.05 X 0.46 X 7.08 inches | 0.34 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780811219112
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
CÉSAR AIRA was born in Coronel Pringles, Argentina in 1949, and has lived in Buenos Aires since 1967. He taught at the University of Buenos Aires (about Copi and Rimbaud) and at the University of Rosario (Constructivism and Mallarmé), and has translated and edited books from France, England, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela. Perhaps one of the most prolific writers in Argentina, and certainly one of the most talked about in Latin America, Aira has published more than 100 books to date in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and Spain, which have been translated for France, Great Britain, Italy, Brazil, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Romania, Russia, and the United States. One novel, La prueba, has been made into a feature film, and How I Became a Nun was chosen as one of Argentina's ten best books. Besides essays and novels Aira writes regularly for the Spanish newspaper El País. In addition to winning the 2021 Formentor Prize, he has received a Guggenheim scholarship, and was shortlisted for the Rómulo Gallegos prize and the Booker International Prize.
The poet and translator Chris Andrews has won the Valle Inclan Prize and the French-American Translation Prize for his work.
Reviews
Aira's literary significance, like that of many other science fiction writers, comes from how he pushes us to question the porous line between fact and fantasy, to see it not only as malleable in history, but also blurred in the everyday. The engrossing power of his work, though, comes from how he carries out these feats: with the inexhaustible energy and pleasure of a child chasing after imaginary enemies in the park.
Aira's work is usually much more fantastic, so it s an interesting exercise to see the author playing with mystery conventions in a more realistic, if cinematic, style. A very literary crime story with South American attitude that is lean, spare and resonant.
Depending on how you read it, this is either a taut noir crime novel or a searing portrait of Buenos Aires' poverty-stricken people. Either way, it's compelling stuff.
Dense, unpredictable confections delivered in a plain, stealthily lyrical style capable of accommodating his fondness for mixing metaphysics, realism, pulp fiction, and Dadaist incongruities. --Michael Greenberg"
Aira is one of the most provocative and idiosyncratic novelists working in Spanish today, and should not be missed. --Natasha Wimmer"
Aira's work is usually much more fantastic, so it s an interesting exercise to see the author playing with mystery conventions in a more realistic, if cinematic, style. A very literary crime story with South American attitude that is lean, spare and resonant.
Depending on how you read it, this is either a taut noir crime novel or a searing portrait of Buenos Aires' poverty-stricken people. Either way, it's compelling stuff.
Dense, unpredictable confections delivered in a plain, stealthily lyrical style capable of accommodating his fondness for mixing metaphysics, realism, pulp fiction, and Dadaist incongruities. --Michael Greenberg"
Aira is one of the most provocative and idiosyncratic novelists working in Spanish today, and should not be missed. --Natasha Wimmer"
