Novel
Casas muertas
Not translated into English
Miguel Otero Silva · 1955
Synopsis
Ortiz, a small town on the plains of Guárico, is dying: malaria and haematuria carry off its inhabitants, with no doctor or hospital, quinine the only remedy, and those who can leave for the big cities and the oilfields. The central government, busy staying in power, lets it happen. Carmen Rosa, who grew up there, has had a brief idyll with Sebastián, a young man from the neighbouring town of Parapara who died in the town; she must choose between staying among the empty houses and leaving in her turn.
Context
The book grew out of the author's inquiry in the State of Guárico into the town of Ortiz, ruined by fevers, and appeared in Buenos Aires from Losada in 1955, under a cover by Rafael Alberti. Biografías y Vidas notes an elegiac tone and a portrayal of manners shot through with humour. A sequel, Oficina n° 1, appeared six years later. Gallimard published the French translation by René L.-F. Durand as early as 1957, reprinted several times.
Who it is for
It helps to know that at the beginning of the century the towns of the Venezuelan llanos had neither doctor nor hospital against the fevers.
Prizes and reception
National Literature Prize and Arístides Rojas novel prize; translated by Gallimard in 1957 and reissued in 1989.
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