Novel
Artificial Respiration
Respiración artificial
Ricardo Piglia · 1980
Synopsis
Emilio Renzi, a young novelist, has drawn a book from the story of his uncle Marcelo Maggi, the family scandal; a letter from the uncle then opens a correspondence between them, according to The Modern Novel. A historian retired to Concordia, where he teaches, Maggi is working on the biography of Enrique Ossorio, a nineteenth-century exile who died in Chile, according to José Di Marco. The first part is made up of these letters; in the second, Renzi goes to Concordia and spends long hours conversing with Tardewski, a Polish exile.
Context
Published by Pomaire in 1980, under the military dictatorship, the novel is read by José Di Marco as a response to censorship: the repression is never named in it, and the detour through the history of an earlier century serves to speak of the present. The two parts carry titles, “Si yo mismo fuera el invierno sombrío” and “Descartes”. Daniel Balderston translated it into English in 1994, Isabelle and Antoine Berman into French in 2000.
Who it is for
A novel in Spanish made up of letters and erudite conversations; translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
The novel that made its author known outside his country, according to escritores.org.
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