An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter

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Summary

It is 1837 and a brilliant German artist sets out to cross the mountains between Chile and Argentina. Perhaps nobody before him has been able to paint the sights that unfold: vast chasms, surreal plants and animals… But then something goes appallingly wrong.

This is one of Aira’s great works, filled with his baffling ability to veer between grandeur and absurdity. Each page fails to provide clues as to what lies in wait for the reader on the next.

About the author

César Aira

César Aira was born in Coronel Pringles, Argentina, in 1949. Over his long and remarkable career Aira has made his own fictional form, creating highly compressed short narratives which in other hands would contain enough material for sprawling epics. His novels available in English include Dinner, The Literary Conference, The Seamstress and the Wind, Ghosts and The Lime Tree. Aira lives in Buenos Aires.

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