About the Author

Cesar Aira was born in Coronel Pringles, Argentina, in 1949. Wildly popular in Latin America, he has published more than seventy books of short fictions and essays. The poet Chris Andrews has translated many books by Roberto Bolano and Cesar Aira for New Directions. Author of 2666 and many other acclaimed works, Roberto Bolano (1953-2003) was born in Santiago, Chile, and later lived in Mexico, Paris, and Spain. He has been acclaimed "by far the most exciting writer to come from south of the Rio Grande in a long time" (Ilan Stavans, The Los Angeles Times)," and as "the real thing and the rarest" (Susan Sontag). Among his many prizes are the extremely prestigious Herralde de Novela Award and the Premio Romulo Gallegos. He was widely considered to be the greatest Latin American writer of his generation. He wrote nine novels, two story collections, and five books of poetry, before dying in July 2003 at the age of 50.

Reviews

"May it herald many more such unsettling and elegant parables to come." -- Mark Doty - Los Angeles Times "I'm about to reread Cesar Aira's An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter once again. The book's mere 87 pages are so multi-faceted and transporting and I get so absorbed that upon finishing I don't remember anything. Like having a complex cinematic dream that dissipates upon awakening." -- Patti Smith - New York Times Book Review "Aira oversteps the bounds of realism, forcing the world to live up to his imagination." -- Benjamin Lytal - New York Sun