Savage Theories

(Paperback, Main)

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A novel of seduction and madness, animated by the spirits of Wittgenstein, Rousseau, Nabokov and Bolao.Buenos Aires. The mysterious narrator, who is a student at the School of Philosophy stalks a middle-aged professor, desperate to reveal that she alone understands his theories. Unable to earn his affection, she strategically seduces a former leftist guerilla and toys with him, blurring the lines between prey and predator. Parallel to this narrative, we follow little Kamtchowsky as she grows from sexually liberated adolescent to transgressive documentary filmmaker. Through her and her boyfriend Pabst's intellectual and sexual misadventures, we witness the underground scene of Buenos Aires as they dabble in ketamine, group sex, video games and pornography. As an aside, in 1917 Africa, a Dutch anthropologist named Johan van Vliet theorises the development of beast into man, and humanity's longstanding flirtation with beastly acts. Climaxing with an Internet hack that catalogues historical violence, devastation and atrocity throughout the centuries, Savage Theories is a kaleidoscopic collage that is spellbinding, strange and ground-breaking.

Reviews

'Oloixarac's wit and ambition are evident on every page. By comparison, most other contemporary fiction seems a little dull and simple-minded' - Hari Kunzru, author of White Tears

'Philosophy gets sexy in Pola Oloixarac's Savage Theories' - Vanity Fair

'[An] exuberant blend of political satire and sexual picaresque. This book rewards total immersion: Come for the inevitable Borges allusions, stay for the wild ride' - The New York Times Book Review

'While there are echoes of Borges and Bolano here, the synthesis of ideas and the manic intelligence are wholly new. Brilliant, original, and very fun to read' - Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

'A radical, bitingly funny debut novel offers a veritable hurricane of ideas on topics from technology to anthropology and features parallel arcs, one involving a student obsessed with her professor and the other about a couple cruising the Buenos Aires underground' - O, Oprah Magazine

Author Bio

Pola Oloixarac was born in Buenos Aires in 1977. She is one of the Granta best young Spanish-language novelists. She was awarded the 2021 Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer's Award. Oloixarac is a regular contributor to The New York Times, and her fiction has appeared in Granta, n+1, The White Review and Freeman's. She lives in Barcelona.