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"César Aira has become a cult fiction writer in his native Argentina as well as throughout Latin America for his hyperrealist treatment of surreal or implausible scenarios and his aggressive defiance of literary conventions," writes Mónica de la Torre, Senior Editor BOMB Magazine, in her introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading.
With their translation of "The Spy," BOMB became one of the first to bring César Aira to English speaking readers.
Here, Aira takes a metaphysical look at life, art, and politics, confirming that "in art there is one condition that takes precedent over all others: to do things well."
Unmistakably the work of César Aira, is about the day in the life of a hapless government employee who, after wandering around all night after being paid by the Ministry in counterfeit money, eventually writes the most celebrated masterwork of modern Central American poetry, . What is odd is that, at fifty years old, Varamo “hadn’t previously written one sole verse, nor had it ever occurred to him to write one.”
Among other things, this novella is an ironic allegory of the poet's vocation and inspiration, the subtlety of artistic genius, and our need to give literature an historic, national, psychological, and aesthetic context. But Aira goes further still — converting the ironic allegory into a formidable parody of the expectations that all narrative texts generate — by laying out the pathos of a man who between one night and the following morning is touched by genius. Once again Aira surprises us with his unclassifiable fiction: original and enjoyable, worthy of many a thoughtful chuckle, invites the reader to become an accomplice in the author’s irresistible game.
June 2026. The Soviet Union has won the Cold War and occupies most of the former United States, now referred to as Soviet America. A fledgling American insurgency commits acts of random sabotage and sporadic bombing attacks against the Soviet occupiers and their collaborators. Two MIT professors of astrophysics, Paul deVere and former Special Operations Officer Lewis Ginter, have discovered a subatomic particle that accelerates matter to speeds faster than light, thereby opening wormholes in time. They create an Accelechron, which makes it possible to propel a human through a wormhole. Working with fellow resistance activists from New England, they develop a daring plan to go back to the early 1960s to alter the course of American history. As the time travelers scheme to avoid the watchful eyes of Soviet intelligence agents Igor Rostov and Natasha Nikitin, they find themselves increasingly distrusted by their fellow resistance leaders. When they finally make their daring attempt, they must confront not only history, but also their own pasts.
SUMMARY: It is 1877, and war has broken out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The Bulgarian front resounds with the thunder of cavalry charges, the roar of artillery, and the clash of steel on steel during the world’s last great horse–and–cannon conflict. Amid the treacherous atmosphere of a nineteenth–century Russian field army, former diplomat and detective extraordinaire Erast Fandorin finds his most confounding case.It’s difficulties are only compounded by the presence of Varya Suvorova, a deadly serious (and seriously beautiful) woman with revolutionary ideals who has disguised herself as a boy in order to find her respected comrade– and fiancé–Pyotr Yablokov, an army cryptographer. Even after Fandorin saves her life, Varya can hardly bear to thank such a “lackey of the throne” for his efforts.But when Yablokov is accused of espionage and faces imprisonment and execution, Varya must turn to Fandorin to find the real culprit… a mission that forces her to reconsider his courage, deductive mind, and piercing gaze.Filled with the same delicious detail, ingenious plotting, and subtle satire as The Winter Queen and Murder on the Leviathan, The Turkish Gambit confirms Boris Akunin’s status as a master of the historical thriller–and Erast Fandorin as a detective for the ages.
Usually, crime writers who give birth to protagonists deserving of future series want to feature those characters as prominently as possible in subsequent installments. Not so Boris Akunin, who succeeds his celebrated first novel about daring 19th-century Russian sleuth Erast Fandorin, __, with the less inventive *Murder on the Leviathan*, in which the now former Moscow investigator competes for center stage with a swell-headed French police commissioner, a crafty adventuress boasting more than her fair share of aliases, and a luxurious steamship that appears fated for deliberate destruction in the Indian Ocean.
Following the 1878 murders of British aristocrat Lord Littleby and his servants on Paris's fashionable Rue de Grenelle, Gustave Gauche, "Investigator for Especially Important Crimes," boards the double-engined, six-masted *Leviathan* on its maiden voyage from England to India. He's on the lookout for first-class passengers missing their specially made gold whale badges--one of which Littleby had yanked from his attacker before he died. However, this trap fails: several travelers are badgeless, and still others make equally good candidates for Littleby's slayer, including a demented baronet, a dubious Japanese army officer, a pregnant and loquacious Swiss banker's wife, and a suave Russian diplomat headed for Japan. That last is of course Fandorin, still recovering two years later from the events related in *The Winter Queen*. Like a lesser Hercule Poirot, "papa" Gauche grills these suspects, all of whom harbor secrets, and occasionally lays blame for Paris's "crime of the century" before one or another of them--only to have the hyper-perceptive Fandorin deflate his arguments. It takes many leagues of ocean, several more deaths, and a superfluity of overlong recollections by the shipmates before a solution to this twisted case emerges from the facts of Littleby's killing and the concurrent theft of a valuable Indian artifact from his mansion.
Like the best Golden Age nautical mysteries, *Murder on the Leviathan* finds its drama in the escalating tensions between a small circle of too-tight-quartered passengers, and draws its humor from their over-mannered behavior and individual eccentricities. Trouble is, Akunin (the pseudonym of Russian philologist Grigory Chkhartishvili) doesn't exceed expectations of what can be done within those traditions. *--J. Kingston Pierce*
### From Publishers Weekly
Akunin writes like a hybrid of Caleb Carr, Agatha Christie and Elizabeth Peters in his second mystery to be published in the U.S., set on the maiden voyage of the British luxury ship *Leviathan*, en route to India in the spring of 1878. Akunin's young Russian detective/diplomat protagonist, Erast Fandorin, has matured considerably since his debut in last year's highly praised *The Winter Queen*, set in 1876, and proves a worthy foil to French police commissioner Gustave Gauche, who boards the *Leviathan* because a clue suggests that one of the passengers murdered a wealthy British aristocrat, seven servants and two children in his Paris home and stole priceless Indian treasures. The intuitive, methodical Fandorin, who joins the ship at Port Said, soon slyly takes over the investigation and comes up with an eclectic group of suspects, all with secrets to hide, whom Gauche assigns to the same dining room. The company recite humorous or instructive stories that slow down the action but eventually relate to the identification of the killer. Gauche offers at least four solutions to the crimes, but in each case Fandorin debates or debunks his reasoning. The atmospheric historical detail gives depth to the twisting plot, while the ruthless yet poignant arch villain makes up for a cast of mostly cardboard characters. Readers disappointed by the lack of background on Fandorin will find plenty in *The Winter Queen*.
In Special Assignments, Erast Fandorin, nineteenth-century Russia's suavest sleuth, faces two formidable new foes: One steals outrageous sums of money, the other takes lives. "The Jack of Spades" is a civilized swindler who has conned thousands of rubles from Moscow's residents including Fandorin's own boss, Prince Dolgorukoi. To catch him, Fandorin and his new assistant, timid young policeman Anisii Tulipov, must don almost as many disguises as the grifter does himself. "The Decorator" is a different case altogether: A savage serial killer who believes he "cleans" the women he mutilates and takes his orders from on high, he must be given Fandorin's most serious attentions. Peopled by a rich cast of eccentric characters, and with plots that are as surprising as they are inventive,Special Assignmentswill delight Akunin's many fans, while challenging the gentleman sleuth's brilliant powers of detection. Praise from England: "Boris Akunin's wit and invention are a source of constant wonder." Evening Standard "[Fandorin is] a debonair combo of Sherlock Holmes, D'Artagnan and most of the soulful heroes of Russian literature. . . . This pair of perfectly balanced stories permit the character of Fandorin to grow." The Sunday Telegraph "Agatha Christie meets James Bond: [Akunin's] plots are intricate and tantalizing. . . . [These stories] are unputdownable and great fun." Sunday Express "The beguiling, super-brainy, sexy, unpredictable Fandorin is a creation like no other in crime fiction." The Times
General Khrapov, newly appointed Governor-General of Siberia and soon-to-be Minister of the Interior, is murdered in his official saloon carriage on his way from St Petersburg to Moscow.The killer, disguised as Fandorin, leaves a knife thrust up to the hilt in his victim's chest and escapes through the window of the carriage. Can Fandorin escape suspicion?A battle of wills and ideals, revolutionaries and traditionalists and good versus evil.
Grand Duke Georgii Alexandrovich arrives in Moscow for the coronation, accompanied by three of his children and their alluring governess, Mademoiselle Declique. During an afternoon stroll, daughter Xenia is dragged away by bandits, only to be rescued by an elegant gentleman and his oriental sidekick. The passing heroes introduce themselves as Fandorin and Masa, but panic ensues when they realise that four-year old Mikhail has been snatched in the confusion.A ransom letter arrives from Dr Lind, an international criminal and the Moriarty to Fandorin's Sherlock Holmes. The letter demands the handover of the Count Orlov, an enormous diamond on the royal sceptre which is due to play a part in the coronation. Fandorin suggests that the value of the stone is paid in 'installments', buying the party a week to ensure the young boy's safe return. But can the gentleman detective find Mikhail in time, or will the Grand Duke's son meet with the same gruesome fate as Lind's last abductee - whom Fandorin could do nothing to save? Will Fandorin succumb to the affections of Xenia? And why is he falling to his death on the very first page? Our inimitable hero returns in a tantalisingly closely-matched battle of wills and of wiles.
There's been rising concern in Moscow over a wave of suicides among the city's young bohemians. An intrepid newspaper reporter, Zhemailo, begins to uncover the truth behind the phenomenon - that the victims are linked by a secret society, the Lovers of Death. But Zhemailo is not the only investigator hot on the heels of these disciples of the occult. Little do they realise that the latest 'convert' to their secret society, assuming the alias of a Japanese prince, is none other than Erast Fandorin. But when a young and naïve provincial woman, Masha Mironova, becomes embroiled in the society, and Zhemalio dies a mysterious death, Fandorin must do more than merely infiltrate and observe. Especially when the spin of the Russian roulette wheel decrees that our dashing hero be the next to die by his own hand. Can Fandorin fake his own demise, all while outwitting the cult's dastardly leader?
Akunin goes noir as Fandorin meets bandits! Senka Skorikov, orphan and urchin, has been abandoned to the murky world of Moscow’s gangster district. While picking a pocket or two, he glimpses the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, and joins the gang of her overlord lover, The Prince, so desperate he is to meet her. Senka climbs the criminal ranks, uncovering a stash of precious metal, and gradually capturing the heart of his beloved Death - so named for the life expectancy of her lovers. But as the bandit community balks at his success on both fronts, threats on his life begin to pour in.
A dandy and his ‘Chinese’ sidekick seem to be taking an inordinate interest in Senka’s welfare, and it becomes clear that those threatening Senka are linked to a spate of murders, grizzly even by underworld standards. Fandorin must unweave a tangled web of narcotics, false identities and organised crime - but can he survive an encounter with the ever-alluring Death unscathed? Find out in the darkest Fandorin to date!
Jest rok 1891. Detektyw Fandorin rozpracuje grupę bojową, zabijającą najwyższych urzędników carskiej ochrany. Kim są mordercy? Do czego dążą? Jak złapać szefa grupy, tajemniczego Grina? Kto kryje się pod inicjałami „T.G”? Jak zwykle u Akunina kapitalna intryga sensacyjna idzie w parze z doskonale odmalowanym tłem historyczno-obyczajowym, tym razem poświęconym „rewolucyjnemu podziemiu”, które niebawem miało zmienić Rosję...
« Comme le loup protestait de ses bonnes intentions, elle lui jeta par le nez :
— Et l'agneau, alors ?… Oui, l'agneau que vous avez mangé ?
Le loup n'en fut pas démonté.
— L'agneau que j'ai mangé, dit-il. Lequel ?
— Comment, vous en avez donc mangé plusieurs ! s'écria Delphine. Eh bien ! C'est du joli !
— Mais naturellement que j'en ai mangé plusieurs. Je ne vois pas où est le mal… Vous en mangez bien, vous ! »
Né à Joigny dans l'Yonne en 1902, Marcel Aymé a été élevé par ses grands-parents maternels, dans le Jura. L'école ne le passionne guère, il préfère se promener ou lire. Il obtient malgré tout son bac à 17 ans, puis hésite à devenir ingénieur, mais une grave maladie l'empêche de poursuivre ses études. Après son service militaire, il monte à Paris, où il va exercer toutes sortes de métiers : journaliste, manœuvre, camelot… En 1926, son premier roman, « Brûlebois », le fait connaître. C'est après le succès de « La Jument verte », en 1933, qu'il peut se consacrer totalement à l'écriture. Le premier recueil des célèbres « Contes du chat perché » est publié en 1934 et le « Passe-muraille » en 1943. Son ironie, son humour caustique, sa truculence ont fait de Marcel Aymé un écrivain très populaire. Auteur d'une vingtaine de romans, de dizaine de nouvelles, d'essais, de scénarios et de nombreuses pièces de théâtre, il est mort à Paris, en 1967.
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