Description
'A searing tale of seduction and betrayal, both wryly comic and deeply serious' Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award-winning author of The Friend 'Intimate, irreverent, fast-paced and raw' Sunday Times Lucas Pereyra, an unemployed writer in his forties, embarks on a day trip from Buenos Aires to Montevideo to pick up a fifteen thousand dollar advance in cash. This small fortune might solve his problems, most importantly the unbearable tension in his marriage. While his wife spends her days at work and her nights out on the town - with a lover, perhaps - Lucas is stuck at home all day staring at the blank page, caring for his son Maiko and fantasizing about the one thing that keeps him going: the Uruguayan woman he recently met at a conference and who he longs to see on this trip. The Woman from Uruguay is the surprising and moving story of one transformative day in Lucas' life. An international bestseller, it is the masterpiece of one of Latin America's most beloved writers, translated by Man Booker International winner Jennifer Croft. 'At once a picaresque comedy and a penetrating study of a man on the verge of middle age' Colm Toibin
From internationally bestselling Argentine author Pedro Mairal and Man Booker International-winning translator Jennifer Croft, the poignant, constantly surprising and convention-defying story of a single day in a struggling 40-something writer's life as he tries to escape his marital troubles in pursuit of a figure from his past.
About the Author
Pedro Mairal is a professor of English literature in Buenos Aires. In 1998 he was awarded the Premio Clarin and in 2007 he was included in the Hay Festival's Bogota 39 list, which named the 39 best Latin American authors under 39. Among his novels are A Night with Sabrina Love, which was made into a film and widely translated, and The Woman from Uruguay, which was a bestseller in Latin America and Spain and has been published in twelve countries. Jennifer Croft won the Man Booker International Prize for her translation from Polish of Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk's Flights. She is the author of Homesick, a Saroyan Prize winner, and numerous pieces in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Paris Review Daily, and elsewhere. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literary Studies from Northwestern University and an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa.
Reviews
'This story of lust and middle-aged angst resonates long after the novel has ended ... Intimate, irreverent, fast-paced and raw ... Reminiscent of Geoff Dyer in elegiac mode, or the angry, funny, rueful work of Luke Brown ... A deeply unconventional love letter' * Sunday Times *
The Woman from Uruguay is at once a picaresque comedy and a penetrating study of a man on the verge of middle age who is trying to deal with fatherhood, money, marriage and love. Lucas's vivid presence in this book is created by his rich way of observing the world. As he travels from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, over seventeen hours, a whole world comes into being, a complex sensibility gets dramatized -- Colm Toibin
Beautifully written and translated, The Woman from Uruguay is a work of exquisite style, shrewd philosophical insight, and deftly controlled suspense. A searing tale of seduction and betrayal, both wryly comic and deeply serious. * Sigrid Nunez, author of THE FRIEND and WHAT ARE YOU GOING THROUGH *
The Woman from Uruguay is a gem; as perfectly formed as a tide-washed pebble, brimming with astute observations and insight into the foibles of masculinity. I loved it * Graeme Macrae Burnet *
Shrewd, funny and involving .. Unfolding over the course of one day, this slim, witty and wryly heart-warming book is both a comic treat and a deftly insightful piece of literary fiction * Daunt, Books of the Week *
A tender meditation on desire and the fragility of the human heart, translated elegantly by Man Booker International winner Jennifer Croft ... [a] profound novel * Chicago Review of Books *
A perfect novel. A triumph from beginning to end. The novel's style, that carries the soft irony of a writer in command of his narrative voice, its extension, its verbal prowess, its impeccably paced rhythm and, of course, the theme: a marital crisis written from the perspective of an Argentine man in his mid forties who is facing an existential crisis. * El Pais (Spain) *
[Pedro Mairal] displays his full talent in a wisely structured novel, outstanding in its narrative rhythm and in the twists and turns of the plot, where humor emerges at the same time a tragedy takes shape surrounding an enigma . . . A story about love and its imponderables. * Pagina 12 (Argentina) *
Eminently readable ... Witty ... Mairal gives his character the gift of frankness, and in his uncomfortable admissions and meandering reflections, Lucas, too, comes to accept the limits of his agency and the ineluctable force of reality * Claie Messud, Harper's *
I wasn't able to put the book down. * Maria Duenas *
A perfect novel. * Edmundo Paz Soldan *
A bittersweet meditation on love, desire and ageing ... A psychologically astute novella ... Pitch-perfect * Guardian *
Mairal shines a fresh light into the cave of being middle aged. Hidden inside a mountain of adult responsibilities, Mairal's narrator revolts in known ways, with infidelity and travel, and yet Mairel's acute insights and the lyrical precision of Jennifer Croft's translation, cast a new glow on the unexpected pleasures to be found in the middle of life. An absolute delight of a novel -- Idra Novey, author of Those Who Knew
The loss and recovery of desire, the ambition of everlasting adventures, the earthquake of becoming a father, the flight forward . . . all these things occur in a single day (. . .), interwoven in the brilliant prose of Pedro Mairal, one of the best Latin American writers of our time. * Leila Guerriero *
Book Information
ISBN 9781526655059
Author Pedro Mairal
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
From internationally bestselling Argentine author Pedro Mairal and Man Booker International-winning translator Jennifer Croft, the poignant, constantly surprising and convention-defying story of a single day in a struggling 40-something writer's life as he tries to escape his marital troubles in pursuit of a figure from his past.
About the Author
Pedro Mairal is a professor of English literature in Buenos Aires. In 1998 he was awarded the Premio Clarin and in 2007 he was included in the Hay Festival's Bogota 39 list, which named the 39 best Latin American authors under 39. Among his novels are A Night with Sabrina Love, which was made into a film and widely translated, and The Woman from Uruguay, which was a bestseller in Latin America and Spain and has been published in twelve countries. Jennifer Croft won the Man Booker International Prize for her translation from Polish of Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk's Flights. She is the author of Homesick, a Saroyan Prize winner, and numerous pieces in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Paris Review Daily, and elsewhere. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literary Studies from Northwestern University and an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa.
Reviews
'This story of lust and middle-aged angst resonates long after the novel has ended ... Intimate, irreverent, fast-paced and raw ... Reminiscent of Geoff Dyer in elegiac mode, or the angry, funny, rueful work of Luke Brown ... A deeply unconventional love letter' * Sunday Times *
The Woman from Uruguay is at once a picaresque comedy and a penetrating study of a man on the verge of middle age who is trying to deal with fatherhood, money, marriage and love. Lucas's vivid presence in this book is created by his rich way of observing the world. As he travels from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, over seventeen hours, a whole world comes into being, a complex sensibility gets dramatized -- Colm Toibin
Beautifully written and translated, The Woman from Uruguay is a work of exquisite style, shrewd philosophical insight, and deftly controlled suspense. A searing tale of seduction and betrayal, both wryly comic and deeply serious. * Sigrid Nunez, author of THE FRIEND and WHAT ARE YOU GOING THROUGH *
The Woman from Uruguay is a gem; as perfectly formed as a tide-washed pebble, brimming with astute observations and insight into the foibles of masculinity. I loved it * Graeme Macrae Burnet *
Shrewd, funny and involving .. Unfolding over the course of one day, this slim, witty and wryly heart-warming book is both a comic treat and a deftly insightful piece of literary fiction * Daunt, Books of the Week *
A tender meditation on desire and the fragility of the human heart, translated elegantly by Man Booker International winner Jennifer Croft ... [a] profound novel * Chicago Review of Books *
A perfect novel. A triumph from beginning to end. The novel's style, that carries the soft irony of a writer in command of his narrative voice, its extension, its verbal prowess, its impeccably paced rhythm and, of course, the theme: a marital crisis written from the perspective of an Argentine man in his mid forties who is facing an existential crisis. * El Pais (Spain) *
[Pedro Mairal] displays his full talent in a wisely structured novel, outstanding in its narrative rhythm and in the twists and turns of the plot, where humor emerges at the same time a tragedy takes shape surrounding an enigma . . . A story about love and its imponderables. * Pagina 12 (Argentina) *
Eminently readable ... Witty ... Mairal gives his character the gift of frankness, and in his uncomfortable admissions and meandering reflections, Lucas, too, comes to accept the limits of his agency and the ineluctable force of reality * Claie Messud, Harper's *
I wasn't able to put the book down. * Maria Duenas *
A perfect novel. * Edmundo Paz Soldan *
A bittersweet meditation on love, desire and ageing ... A psychologically astute novella ... Pitch-perfect * Guardian *
Mairal shines a fresh light into the cave of being middle aged. Hidden inside a mountain of adult responsibilities, Mairal's narrator revolts in known ways, with infidelity and travel, and yet Mairel's acute insights and the lyrical precision of Jennifer Croft's translation, cast a new glow on the unexpected pleasures to be found in the middle of life. An absolute delight of a novel -- Idra Novey, author of Those Who Knew
The loss and recovery of desire, the ambition of everlasting adventures, the earthquake of becoming a father, the flight forward . . . all these things occur in a single day (. . .), interwoven in the brilliant prose of Pedro Mairal, one of the best Latin American writers of our time. * Leila Guerriero *
Book Information
ISBN 9781526655059
Author Pedro Mairal
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
