Cortazar's masterpiece. This is the first great novel of Spanish America
Times Literary Supplement
One of the great existentialist novels, worthy to stand alongside the efforts of Sartre and Camus
LA Review of Books
Marks the true possibility of encounter between the Latin–American imagination and the contemporary world
Anyone who doesn't read Cortázar is doomed
- Pablo Neruda,
I'm permanently indebted to the work of Cortázar
- Roberto Bolaño,
He was, perhaps without trying, the Argentine who made the whole world love him
- Gabriel García Márquez,
Here is literary cunning and accomplishment of a high order
Guardian
The dialogue is brilliant, whether the subject is literature, love, Mondrian, jazz or the fallibility of science
New York Times
Mr Cortazar has marked off a corner of the world singularly his own
New York Times
Julio Cortazar's crazed masterpiece, the forbearer of the Latin Boom in the 1960s - published in Vintage Classics for the first time
'Cortazar's masterpiece. This is the first great novel of Spanish America... A powerful anti-novel but, like deeply understood moments in life itself, rich with many kinds of potential meanings and intimations' Times Literary Supplement
Dazed by the disappearance of his muse, Argentinian writer Horatio Oliveira wanders the bridges of Paris, the sounds of jazz and the talk of literature, life and art echoing around him. But a chance encounter with a literary idol and his new work – a novel that can be read in random order – sends Horatio’s mind into further confusion.
As a return to Buenos Aires beckons, Horatio’s friend and fellow artist, Traveler, awaits his arrival with dread –the lives of these two young writers now ready to play out in an inexhaustible game of indeterminacy.