(b. Argentina, 1977)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 2021
photo by Helena Insinger
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.
"Both a wicked satire of the literary élite and an exploration of art and violence . . . The novel is the kind that Mona imagines writing: 'terrifying, brilliant, and dangerous.'" ―The New Yorker
"Ruthless, very funny." ―The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice
"Oloixarac frequently made me laugh out loud. There are moments so casually well observed―hat-tip to her translator, Adam Morris―that you're almost eager to prolong the conference . . . Clearly, this is a world the author knows all too well." ―Sadie Stein, The New York Times Book Review
"Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society―readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena―Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip." ―Chloe Schama, Vogue
"Oloixarac is an ace Dorothy Parker, with long knives drawn, who nonetheless can’t help feeling the weight of the tragedies that lead to comedy . . . Razor-sharp and evocative . . . The author continually makes the ordinary feel surprising." ―Alex McLevy, AV Club
“Engaging and challenging . . . Oloixarac offers an illuminating critique of the business of literature . . . [and] calls for . . . writing as a commitment to people and some version of love, without descending into pabulum or cliché.” ―Yxta Maya Murray, Los Angeles Review of Books
“Mona could be labeled a satire of the contemporary world literature circuit, but that description would miss the psychological unease that undergirds every academic exchange. Its conclusion could be called absurdist, but everything that precedes it is eminently sensible. Oloixarac seems intent on locating a style that defies the conformism her characters succumb to . . . [Mona occupies a] space of tension, striving for sentiment and feeling while portraying the fragmentary texture of contemporary life.” ―Jasmine Liu, Full Stop
"[Oloixarac] is very sharp and witty, her observations provocative . . . Oloixarac makes you feel smarter just by reading her . . . When it comes to satire, she takes no prisoners . . . Oloixarac has her thumb on what’s happening now in our increasingly international and diverse culture." ―Ed Meek, ArtsFuse
"Oloixarac is thoughtful and also hilarious in her writing: her multilingual wordplays are iconic . . . In writing, as in life, the true challenge facing anyone with something to say is to challenge the interlocutor just enough. Oloixarac's story is brilliant because it makes you wonder how much is enough." ―Ana Clara Ribeiro, PopMatters
“Pola Oloixarac is an Argentine satirist, though that designation may not go far enough to capture the degree to which she dismantles her subjects. Theorist might be more appropriate, if we were to cast back to the time when theorists like Michel Foucault or Gayatri Spivak were the great disenchanters of the world . . . Mona is the rage of a purist . . . [It is] a welcome change, to read an author for whom writing that isn’t ecstatic may as well have been written by Google.” ―Nicholas Bredie, Air/Light
Brasil, 1930-2004
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With My Dog-Eyes
[Com meus olhos de cão, Brasilense, 1986]
Melville House, April 2014
“A dark and truly singular work".—NPR
“Not for the faint-hearted.”—The Guardian
“First-rate.”—The Boston Globe
“Captivatingly translated…a densely allusive novella by the late Brazilian writer Hilda Hist, traces the coming undone of a mathematics professor, and is too brilliantly bizarre to quote at length.” —Times Literary Supplement (UK), Best Books of the Year
“Memorable and very strange: Latin American magical realism taken far beyond the bounds of the genre’s usual whimsy and pushed into the territory of nightmares.” —Kirkus
b. 1961, São Paulo
Antonio
[Editora 34, 2008]
New Directions, November 2020
Longlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize.
“As in her novel “I Didn’t Talk” (also elaborately translated by Morris), Bracher brilliantly picks away at the web of secrets and lies plaguing a family and country.” — New York Times
“This spellbinding and surprising work announced Bracher as one of the most fascinating contemporary Brazilian writers.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)
I Didn’t Talk
[Não falei, Editora 34, 2004]
New Directions
July 2018
“Stunning”—NPR
“Simmering”—Vanity Fair
“A haunting, powerful novel.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An arresting work, told in stringently beautiful prose; for all smart sophisticated readers.” —Library Journal
“A slender but memorable contribution to the literature of crime and (sometimes self-inflicted) punishment.”—Kirkus
“As with the works of W. G. Sebald and Patrick Modiano, this is a slim, dense novel that lingers in the eddies of personal memory and historical reckoning.”—Los Angeles Review of Books
“Translator Adam Morris deftly renders Bracher’s conversational style, chasing Gustavo as he skips from one topic to another, lost in the haze of memory.”—World Literature Today
1946-2017
author photo courtesy of Oasys Cultural
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Quiet Creature on the Corner
[O quieto animal da esquina, Rocco, 1991]
Two Lines Press, 2016
“An overlooked master.” — Times Literary Supplement
“João Gilberto Noll could make any life into a compelling novel—not by selective retelling or outright fabrication, but by being willing to recognize the inherent value of a life lived—no matter its form or function in society.” —Music & Literature
“An intoxicating book, one that many will greedily ingest in a single sitting and one that introduces English speakers to a major figure in Brazilian literature.” —Kenyon Review
Atlantic Hotel
[Hotel Atlântico, Rocco, 1989]
Two Lines Press, 2017
“Brief, captivating, and wonderfully opaque.” —Publishers Weekly
“Beautifully translated.” —Full Stop
“An unnerving but starkly beautiful parable of alienation, isolation, and the eternal heartache of the human condition.” —Número Cinq