Katherine (TRN) Silver

Daily conversations in outdoor cafes with cultured friends can help make reality a little more real. Unfortunately, however, during one such conversation, one man spots a gold Rolex watch on a TV soap opera s goatherd. This seemingly small absurdity sets off alarms: strange sensations of deception, distress, and incipient madness. The two men s uneasiness soon becomes a nightmare as the TV adventure advances with a real-life plot involving a mutant strain of killer algae to take over the world The Conversations, a reality within a fiction within a parallel reality, is hilariously funny and surprisingly touching."

C sar Aira 's newest novel in English is not about a conventional doctor. Single, in his forties, and poor, Dr. Aira is a skeptic. His personality his weaknesses, whims, and pet peeves is summed up in a series of digressions and regressions but he has a very special gift for miracles. He no longer cares about miracles, however, and has no faith in them. Perhaps he is even a little ashamed about his supernatural powers. Such is Dr. Aira, who also has to confront his arch-enemy chief of the Pi ero Hospital, Dr. Actyn who is constantly trying to prove that Dr. Aira is a charlatan. Poor Dr. Aira is indeed a worker of miracles, but C sar Aira the magesterial author sends the very human doctor stumbling toward the biggest trap of all, in this magical book.