In January the publishing world usually goes on hiatus. That is why, with few launches on the horizon and far from the urgency of strict novelty, Over four Wednesdays we will rescue under the label of summer readings a selection – arbitrary, of course – of books that in recent months did not get the coverage they deservedwhich due to the date of their release and lack of time were left out of the year-end balance sheets or, simply, which are worth taking into account as an option for those who are looking for readings these days.
Lina Meruane: “Writing forces you to reconsider what you once thought was a supreme truth”
Below, the first installment of this saga, composed by three notable books by national authors that were published during December 2023.
1. Disintegration in a boxby Sebastián Martínez Daniell. In one of the fragments that are part of this novel, the narrator gets angry with people who choose to go to sleep listening to themselves, focused on what they said or are about to say, thinking about their own words “instead of putting the heard in the dissonance of the world.” Throughout the pages of his captivating Disintegration in a box (Marciana, 2023), Sebastian Martinez Daniell works on that mechanics to pay attention, precisely, to the tiny creaks of that convention that we call daily life, to that which insists and clashes in families, to that which resonates from the past despite the noise around it. And he does it with all his talent, with all the ease possible.. What disintegrates almost imperceptibly but continues to send signals in some way is, then, the vital material of this story, which in a fragmentary way has a young woman who has just lost her mother and a large number of elements (cassettes with familiar voices, songs, bizarre animals, snippets of lives) and characters who wander through overlapping times.
With a wide range of resources – the soliloquy of someone going through grief, a third person who is sarcastic and overwhelming in his descriptions, a voice that asks questions at the wrong time –, The writer once again realizes the plasticity that characterizes him with an enveloping writing that seems to contain everything.. The points of view, the times (a remembered past, a post-apocalyptic present) and the splinters of memory exposed with an extraordinary use of language make Disintegration in a box A powerful novel destined to last in readers’ memories.
Sebastián Martínez Daniell was born in Buenos Aires, in 1971. He published the novels Week (2004), Isolated precipitation (2010) y Two sherpas (2018) in Entropía publishing house, of which he is one of the people responsible. He participated in short fiction anthologies Buenos Aires / School 1.11 (2007), One by one (2008), Talk about me (2010) y Hits. Stories and memories of the dictatorship (2016), among other publications. His books have been translated into English, Italian and Portuguese. Currently she teaches in the Writing Arts program at the National University of the Arts.
Disintegration in a boxby Sebastián Martínez Daniell, was published by Marciana.
2. Life of Horaceby Mercedes Halfon. An image of her childhood pulls on memory to condense in it the portrait of a singular father: the author is a girl, her father a school principal who stirs a strange mixture in the kitchen of the family home. When the white liquid is ready, he loads the can that contains it, the girl and her brother into the car and drives for a while until he stops. It’s night and everything is a mystery to her: The father, far from suits and formalities, is dressed in outlandish sportswear. Then she gets out and, from that shared secrecy that never ceases to amaze her, she sees him paste homemade posters, written by him in his own handwriting, on the walls with that ointment: “Adult school No. 14 of district 8. Pedro Goyena 984. Free”. In Life of Horace (Entropy, 2023) The writer Mercedes Halfon evokes, with sensitivity and clear texts distributed in small notes, the scenes and colors of her memory to offer something more than the images of that double life that his father led to spread public education.
The thing is that, trying to put together that leaky puzzle that families always are, the writer replaces with great talent a world crossed by ideals, breakups, economic crises, disappointments and secrets. A book of intimate memories, a possible biography in which a series of walls follow one another that Halfon pierces with his sharp prose and at the same time affectionate towards the protagonists.: those of the faltering middle-class apartments, those of the institutions, those of the classrooms. And, above all, those on the corners with homemade signs that invite you to sign up for night school, to break that last limit, to believe in something.
Mercedes Halfon She was born in Buenos Aires, in 1980. She is a writer, cultural journalist and teacher. She is the author of narrative, poetry and essay texts. Among her books, the following stand out: The work of the eyes y punched newspaper (Editorial Entropía, 2018 and 2020), which were also published in Chile, Spain and Bolivia. He wrote the research Foreigner everywhere. The Argentine days of Witold Grombrowicz (Diego Portales University Editions, 2023).
Life of Horaceby Mercedes Halfon, was released by Entropía.
3. The dancing queende Camila Fabbri. “The pain is true. What I thought was a bird poking me in the eye is actually glass, the vandal-proof shielding that I paid for in twelve interest-free installments last year. “Those acts that feign small bravery”describes in the first pages Paulina, the narrator of the shocking novel The dancing queen (Anagrama, 2023), by Camila Fabbri. In this way he anticipates a direction: there will be pain, there will be appearances, there will be loss.
Paulina is a woman in her thirties who has just had an accident while she was behind the wheel of her car. From those first moments of confusion, and throughout the entire story, the author will show a person who tries to open his eyes, who carries several splinters on his back, between urgency and the transcendental, between the accident and what he desires. . In that haze, she notices that a fifteen-year-old teenager and a dog were traveling with her, whom Paulina initially does not know.
From that moment on, with a detailed, subtle and only apparently slight narration, we will learn more about the narrator’s past, her recent separation, her gray days in an office, Maite, one of the few people with the ones he talks about every day; of the fifteen-year-old who witnesses the crash and the reason that led Paulina to undertake the trip. A moving novel, with relentless dialogue, with scenes that seem simple and involve layers of disturbing conflicts..
Camila Fabbri was born in Buenos Aires, in 1989. She wrote and directed five plays and collaborates in various cultural and literary media. In 2015 she published The accidents (Emecé), his first book of stories, republished in 2017 in Spain and Latin America. The day they turned off the light (Seix Barral, 2021) was his first non-fiction novel and We are safe (Seix Barral, 2022) his second book of stories. In 2021 she was selected by Granta as one of the best narrators in Spanish under 35 years of age. The movie Clara gets lost in the forest (2023), her debut as a screenwriter and audiovisual director, was premiered in competition in the Latin Horizons section of the 71st edition of the San Sebastián International Film Festival. His texts were translated into English, French, Italian and Chinese.
The dancing queenby Camila Fabbri, was released by Anagrama.
AL
2024-01-10 12:40:00
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