La Grande

(Paperback)

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Description

Moving between past and present, La Grande centers around two related stories: that of Gutirrez, his sudden departure from Argentina 30 years before, and his equally mysterious return; and that of precisionism,' a literary movement founded by a rather dangerous fraud. Dozens of characters populate these storylines, including Nula, the wine salesman, ladies' man, and part-time philosopher; Luca, the woman he's lusted after for years; and Tomatis, a journalist whom Saer fans have encountered many times before.'

Reviews

"This final novel by the renowned Argentine writer is a daring, idiosyncratic work that examines the idea of an individual person navigating the whirl of random events that helps shape everyone's lives."Kirkus "The experience, the joy, of reading this book comes from an appreciation of Saer's ability to keep these various pieces in motion. Saer-as-maestro teases apart story lines only to carefully reconnect them hundreds of pages later. . . . The mundane becomes strange, significant, filled with meaning, so that each story, each character, each plot step even, appears consequential. Nothing is ever wasted."Numro Cinq "Juan Jos Saer must be added to the list of the best South American writers."Le Monde "To say that Juan Jos Saer is the best Argentinian writer of today is to undervalue his work. It would be better to say that Saer is one of the best writers of today in any language."Ricardo Piglia

Author Bio

Juan Jos Saer (19372005), born in Santa F, Argentina, was the leading Argentinian writer of the post-Borges generation. In 1968, he moved to Paris and taught literature at the University of Rennes. The author of numerous novels and short-story collections (including Sixty-Five Years of Washington, Scars, The One Before, The Clouds, all being published by Open Letter), Saer was awarded Spain's prestigious Nadal Prize in 1987 for The Event. Steve Dolph is the founding editor of Calque, a journal of literature in translation. His translation of Saer's Scars was a finalist for the 2012 Best Translated Book Award. He lives in Philadelphia where he spends his summers rooting for the Phillies.