Author of the Month: Julio Cortázar
Selected by the Bookshop
‘Anyone who doesn’t read Cortázar is doomed.’ – Pablo Neruda
Our author of the month for September is the Argentine-French novelist Julio Cortázar.
Born in Brussels in 1914 shortly after the German invasion of Belgium, his family moved first to Zurich, then Barcelona, before settling in Buenos Aires in 1919, where Cortázar spent his childhood and adolescence. From 1951, conflict with the Peronist regime led to his permanently settling in France. He began his literary career with poetry and drama before turning to short fiction, most notably with Bestiary, published in 1951. But it was his 1963 novel, Hopscotch, that established his reputation as one of the leading writers of the Latin American boom of the 1960s.
Cortázar’s influences are varied, and his work draws on inspiration from Borges, Poe, Joyce, surrealism, modern jazz, photography and the visual arts, but his voice is distinctively his own: political, playful and resolutely experimental.
From the publisher:
Translated by Gregory RabassaJulio Cortazar's crazed masterpiece, the forbearer of the Latin Boom in the 1960s - published in Vintage Classics for the first time'Cortazar's masterpiece. This is the first great novel of Spanish America... A…
From the publisher:
Translated by Alberto Manguel, Paul Blackburn, Gregory and Clementine Rabassa & Suzanne Jill LevineA collection of masterful short stories in Julio Cortazar's sophistocated, powerful and gripping style.'Julio Cortazar is truly a…
From the publisher:
Translated by Alfred Mac AdamFinal Exam is Julio Cortázar's bitter and melancholy allegorical farewell to an Argentina from which he would soon be permanently self-exiled.In a fog-drenched Buenos Aires, Juan and Clara should be…
From the publisher:
Translated by Gregory RabassaCortázar's great political novel, A Manual for Manuel is a personal meditation on the need for revolution - as told by one of the great, wild voice of the Latin American boomIn 1970s Paris, a group of…
From the publisher:
Translated by Gregory RabassaCortazar's great bohemian novel of city life, 62: A Model Kit is seen as the experiemental sequel to his masterpiece, Hopscotch‘A deeply touching, enjoyable novel, beautifully written and…
From the publisher:
Translated by Elaine KerriganA funny, frightening and richly lyrical philosophical thriller, this new reissue sees Cortazar's The Winners back in print for the first time in decades.When a group of Argentinians win a mysterious…
From the publisher:
Translated by Suzanne Jill Levine'He is a man who has persistently and brilliantly rewritten Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in a manner which has nothing to do with psychology and everything to do with mystery. He is the apostle of the lives we have…
From the publisher:
Translated by Paul Blackburn'...Cronopios and Famas is a collection of losely connected, strongly surrealistic prose fragments; alternately humourous and grotesque, they read like Thurber parables written by Kafka.' Long Beach…
From the publisher:
Translated by David KurnickAfterword by David KurnickOctavio Paz: "If you love art, do something, Fantomas!"Fantomas: "I will, you can depend on it."First published in Spanish in 1975 and previously untranslated, Fantomas versus the…
From the publisher:
Translated by Stephen KesslerNewly expanded edition of a classic: the first and only collection of Cortázar’s poetry to appear in English.One of Publishers Weekly‘s Most Anticipated Books for Fall…
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