Selva Almada Knihy

A piercing and passionate novel, set in rural Argentina, about violence and masculinity Oscar Tamai and Elvio Miranda, the patriarchs of two families of brickmakers, have for years nursed a mutual hatred, but their teenage sons, Pájaro and Ángelito, somehow fell in love. Brickmakers begins as Pájaro and Marciano, Ángelito’s older brother, lie dying in the mud at the base of a Ferris wheel. Inhabiting a dreamlike state between life and death, they recall the events that forced them to pay the price of their fathers’ petty feud. The Tamai and Miranda families are caught, like the Capulets and the Montagues, in an almost mythic conflict, one that emerges from stubborn pride and intractable machismo. Like her heralded debut, The Wind That Lays Waste, Selva Almada’s fierce and tender second novel is an unforgettable portrayal of characters who initially seem to stand in opposition, but are ultimately revealed to be bound by their similarities. Almada enlarges the tradition of some of the most distinctive prose stylists of our time. In Brickmakers, she furthers her extraordinary exploration of masculinity and the realities of working-class rural life. This is another exquisitely written and powerfully told story by a major international voice.

Not a police chronicle, not a thriller, but a contemporary noir novel of the ongoing catastrophe of femicide and the murder of three young women in interior of Argentina.

Set in rural Argentina, "Not a River" explores the cruelty and violence of the male universe through the secret pacts and alliances among men. January and Negro take Tilo, the teenage son of their deceased friend Eusebio, fishing. As they drink, cook, talk, and dance, they grapple with the ghosts of the past and present, which blur together in the haze of wine and heat. A web intertwines reality and dreams, facts and conjectures, with elements of island life, water, night, fire, fish, and insects. This novel flows like a river, embodying a long conversation or the affection between loved ones: mothers, sons, brothers, lovers, and godchildren. With "Not a River," Selva Almada completes her trilogy on men, which began with "The Wind That Sweeps" and was followed by "Brickmakers." In this masterful novel, her distinctive narrative style and extraordinary sensitivity allow characters to express what lies deep within their souls, far from their own lives.

La 4ème de couv. indique : "The Wind That Lays Waste begins in the great pause before a storm. Reverend Pearson is evangelizing across the Argentinian countryside with Leni, his teenage daughter, when their car breaks down. This act of God or fate leads them to the workshop and home of an aging mechanic called Gringo Brauer and a young boy named Tapioca. As a long day passes, curiosity and intrigue transform into an unexpected intimacy between four people: one man who believes deeply in God, morality, and his own righteousness, and another whose life experiences have only entrenched his moral relativism and mild apathy; a quietly earnest and idealistic mechanics assistant, and a restless, sceptical preachers daughter. As tensions between these characters ebb and flow, beliefs are questioned and allegiances are tested, until finally the growing storm breaks over the plains.."