Novel
Eisejuaz
Not translated into English
Sara Gallardo · 1971
Synopsis
The book is the interior monologue of a Mataco, or Wichí, man of the Chaco, who receives signs from God telling him how to act, according to the Cambridge University Library. Página/12 speaks of a hallucinatory monologue, that of a man in search of his own sainthood. Eisejuaz's voice carries the mark of his language in its grammar and syntax.
Context
Published in 1971, the novel rests on the invention of a language that imitates the speech of the Indian of Salta, through economy of vocabulary, silence and apparent mistakes, according to Página/12. After the author's death, ten years of almost total oblivion were broken by readers including María Moreno and two writers present in this catalogue. The newspaper Clarín reissued it in 2001 in a series of classics, according to Cambridge, and a Madrid publisher reissued it in 2019.
Who it is for
A brief novel in Spanish, in a deliberately displaced language, which takes a while to get used to.
Prizes and reception
A decade in the shadows, then a rediscovery driven by writers, according to Página/12.
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