Land of Smoke

(Paperback)

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Description

'One of my favourite books by one of my favourite Argentinian authors' Samanta Schweblin, author of Little Eyes

Dazzling and hallucinatory, the stories collected here recall the masters of magical realism - but with Gallardo's distinctive, idiosyncratic slant. An old man wakes up one morning to find that his beloved garden, the envy of all his neighbours, is floating away with him on board. A young woman moves to Buenos Aires, bringing with her a replacement head. A meek German missionary leaves Paraguay for the Pampas, completely unprepared for what he will encounter there. Resplendent with otherworldly imagery and beguiling prose, Land of Smoke presents a uniquely compelling voice in Latin American literature.

Reviews

'Her wild pampas, her intimate wars, and with a delirious but contained imagination, sweet but cruel... Land of Smoke is my favourite book by one of my favourite Argentinian authors' - Samanta Schweblin, author of Fever Dream

'The forty-six stories and fragments in Land of Smoke... offer a gamut of lengths, themes and moods... the best are diamantine, intense and violent' - Times Literary Supplement

'Dazzles above all in its highly personal language, made up of simple words, long silences and constant poetic feats of daring, a language glowing with both the most absolute desperation and the fierce joy of discovering, capturing and sharing the glory of one's experiences' - Leopoldo Brizuela

'Surprising and enigmatic... reads like poetic communique from an exceptional imagination' - LA Times

'She writes with an air of authority (which Jessica Sequeira has translated from Spanish brilliantly) that begs your trust... Gallardo's succinct descriptions define the tangible - the weather, the landscape, the physical circumstances - while her plots are fantastical. The former grounds the latter, making anything seem possible' - Chicago Review of Books

Author Bio

Sara Gallardo was a celebrated and prize-winning Argentinian writer, born in Buenos Aires in 1931. Her first book was published in 1958, and by the time she died in 1988, she had published novels, short stories, children's books, and essays. Written after the death of her second husband, Land of Smoke is the first of her books to be translated into English.