The Little Buddhist Monk & The Proof (Paperback)
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Two completely different stories by the inimitable César Aira
The Little Buddhist Monk is a story of Asian invention gone wild, as a diminutive Korean Buddhist monk acts as a tour guide to an increasingly distraught French couple on a working vacation in the Far East. The Proof brings us quickly back to the West, where two punks, plus a new recruit (“Wannafuck?” is the opening line as the two punk lesbians accost the chubby and shy Marcia on a quiet street in Buenos Aires), take control of a local supermarket with dire consequences for the hostages. These two Aira works are as different as night and day. Nevertheless, sex, identity, and modern day economics figure deeply in both of these fast-paced, edgy fictions.
CÉSAR AIRA was born in Coronel Pringles, Argentina in 1949, and has lived in Buenos Aires since 1967. He taught at the University of Buenos Aires (about Copi and Rimbaud) and at the University of Rosario (Constructivism and Mallarmé), and has translated and edited books from France, England, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela. Perhaps one of the most prolific writers in Argentina, and certainly one of the most talked about in Latin America, Aira has published more than 100 books to date in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and Spain, which have been translated for France, Great Britain, Italy, Brazil, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Romania, Russia, and the United States. One novel, La prueba, has been made into a feature film, and How I Became a Nun was chosen as one of Argentina’s ten best books. Besides essays and novels Aira writes regularly for the Spanish newspaper El País. In addition to winning the 2021 Formentor Prize, he has received a Guggenheim scholarship, and was shortlisted for the Rómulo Gallegos prize and the Booker International Prize.
Nick Caistor is a translator, editor, and author. He has written a biography of Octavio Paz and has translated the works of José Saramago, Paulo Coelho, and Julián Ríos, among others.
Nick Caistor is a translator, editor, and author. He has written a biography of Octavio Paz and has translated the works of José Saramago, Paulo Coelho, and Julián Ríos, among others.
New novellas from Aira are always a cause for celebration.
— Brian Evenson - Big Other
Irreverent inventiveness … without analogue in
contemporary literature.
— Megan Doll - San Francisco Chronicle
Uncanny
imagination à la Calvino.
— Laura Pearson - The Chicago Tribune
Cesar Aira is wild. The laws of gravity
do not apply.
— James S.A. Correy - The Denver Post
South America’s answer to Haruki Murakami.
— Andrew Irvin - The Miami Herald
Aira
delivers one surreal unraveling of
reality after another that proceeds paradox by paradox into psychic realms.
— Michael Upchurch - The Seattle Times
Aira continues to surprise and delight in
his latest release from New Directions, which collects two
novellas...There are a number of similarities to be sure—they both
revolve around the sudden but intense relationship between three
characters, they both take place over the course of less than
twenty-four hours, they are both, at turns, wildly funny.
— Three Percent Review
Aira’s
novels parody narrative form,
destroy normal cause and effect, and contain bold conceptual dialogues.
— Michael Eaude - Times Literary Supplement
— Brian Evenson - Big Other
Irreverent inventiveness … without analogue in
contemporary literature.
— Megan Doll - San Francisco Chronicle
Uncanny
imagination à la Calvino.
— Laura Pearson - The Chicago Tribune
Cesar Aira is wild. The laws of gravity
do not apply.
— James S.A. Correy - The Denver Post
South America’s answer to Haruki Murakami.
— Andrew Irvin - The Miami Herald
Aira
delivers one surreal unraveling of
reality after another that proceeds paradox by paradox into psychic realms.
— Michael Upchurch - The Seattle Times
Aira continues to surprise and delight in
his latest release from New Directions, which collects two
novellas...There are a number of similarities to be sure—they both
revolve around the sudden but intense relationship between three
characters, they both take place over the course of less than
twenty-four hours, they are both, at turns, wildly funny.
— Three Percent Review
Aira’s
novels parody narrative form,
destroy normal cause and effect, and contain bold conceptual dialogues.
— Michael Eaude - Times Literary Supplement