Widely acclaimed throughout Latin America after its 1992 release in
Argentina, "The Absent City" takes the form of a futuristic
detective novel. In the end, however, it is a meditation on the
nature of totalitarian regimes, on the transition to democracy
after the end of such regimes, and on the power of language to
create and define reality. Ricardo Piglia combines his trademark
avant-garde aesthetics with astute cultural and political insights
into Argentina's history and contemporary condition in this
conceptually daring and entertaining work.
The novel follows Junior, a reporter for a daily Buenos Aires
newspaper, as he attempts to locate a secret machine that contains
the mind and the memory of a woman named Elena. While Elena
produces stories that reflect on actual events in Argentina, the
police are seeking her destruction because of the revelations of
atrocities that she--the machine--is disseminating through texts
and taped recordings. The book thus portrays the race to recover
the history and memory of a city and a country where history has
largely been obliterated by political repression. Its
narratives--all part of a detective story, all part of something
more--multiply as they intersect with each other, like the streets
and avenues of Buenos Aires itself.
The second of Piglia's novels to be translated by Duke University
Press--the first was "Artifical Respiration"--this book continues
the author's quest to portray the abuses and atrocities that
characterize dictatorships as well as the difficulties associated
with making the transition to democracy. Translated and with an
introduction by Sergio Waisman, it includes a new afterword by the
author.
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