Rodrigo Blanco Calderon

Dejstvie romana proiskhodit v period krizisa v Venesuele i krakha chavizma, na fone massovogo ottoka predstavitelej intellektualnogo klassa. Glavnyj geroj Ulises Kan poluchaet izvestie ot svoej zheny Pauliny: ona brosaet ego i uezzhaet iz strany. Dva posledujuschikh sobytija esche bolshe menjajut zhizn Kana: vozvraschenie Nadin, nesbyvshejsja kogda-to ljubvi, i smert testja, generala Martina Ajjaly. Iz zaveschanija Ajjaly Ulises uznaet, chto emu poruchena missija - prevratit bolshoj familnyj osobnjak v prijut dlja broshennykh sobak. Esli emu udastsja sdelat eto v srok, on unasleduet roskoshnuju kvartiru, kotoruju nekogda delil s zhenoj. Kniga o seme i sirotstve, o ljubvi i predatelstve, o borbe so zloupotrebleniem vlastju i politicheskikh protsessakh v Venesuele. Rodrigo Blanko Kalderon - odin iz jarchajshikh golosov sovremennoj latinoamerikanskoj literatury. Long-list mezhdunarodnoj bukerovskoj premii 2024 godaPerevod: Darja Sinitsyna

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE Rodrigo Blanco Calder n has established himself as one of the great voices of Latin American literature with his debut novel The Night, and his short story collection Sacrifices. Simpat a is a suspenseful novel with unexpected twists and turns about the agony of Venezuela and the collapse of Chavismo. Simpat a is set in the Venezuela of Nicolas Maduro amid a mass exodus of the intellectual class who have been leaving their pets behind. Ulises Kan, the protagonist and a movie buff, receives a text message from his wife, Paulina, saying she is leaving the country (and him). Ulises is not heartbroken but liberated by Paulina's departure. Two other events end up disrupting his life even further: the return of Nadine, an unrequited love from the past, and the death of his father-in-law, General Mart n Ayala. Thanks to Ayala's will, Ulises discovers that he has been entrusted with a mission--to transform Los Argonautas, the great family home, into a shelter for abandoned dogs. If he manages to do it in time, he will inherit the luxurious apartment that he had shared with Paulina. This novel centers on themes of family and orphanhood in order to address the abuse of power by a patrilineage of political figures in Latin America, from Sim n Bol var to Hugo Ch vez. The untranslatable title, Simpat a, which means both sympathy and charm, ironically references the qualities these political figures share. In a morally bankrupt society, where all human ties seem to have dissolved, Ulises is like a stray dog picking up scraps of sympathy. Can you really know who you love? What is, in essence, a family? Are abandoned dogs proof of the existence or non-existence of God? Ulises unknowingly embodies these questions, as a pilgrim of affection in a post-love era.

Winner of the O. Henry Prize for the story "The Mad People of Paris" These revelatory short stories tread the line between surrealism and realism with strange, appealing characters who take on a sacrifice in spite of themselves. A followup to his first novel, The Night (winner of the Rive Gauche Paris Prize for foreign books in 2016), this collection of short stories by Venezuelan literary star Rodrigo Blanco Calder n features a taxidermist painter, a blind man lost in Mexico City, a female motorcyclist who rides naked through the night, a foreigner who learns a language making confessions in Paris churches, and a dying pilot who finds peace in a reading of Antoine de Saint-Exup ry. Impeccable and masterful in his storytelling, Blanco Calder n constructs a nocturnal cast of characters who become the victims and executioners of a sacrifice in the midst of a floundering Venezuela, others with the threat of terrorism in France, or in a Mexico symbolizing the first shots of the revolution.