Confesion
Published on 5. September 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
150 pages
978-1-913867-67-6 (ISBN)
Description
Brutal y sobrecogedora, una novela con la dictadura argentina como telon de fondo.
Tres historias que forman parte de una misma historia. En 1941, en una ciudad de provincias argentina, una nina con?esa a un sacerdote los primeros y difusos impulsos sexuales que nota en su cuerpo, relacionados con la atraccion que siente por un joven apellidado Videla que pasa cada dia bajo su ventana. En 1977 un grupo de jovenes revolucionarios prepara un atentado en un aerodromo para liquidar a un Videla que ya no es joven y es conocido por todos. Y, por ultimo, una anciana -la nina de la primera historia- juega una partida de cartas con su nieto, que ha ido a visitarla a la residencia donde pasa sus dias, y entre jugada y jugada le cuenta lo que le sucedio a su hijo, el padre del chico, en lo que resulta una nueva confesion. Tres historias y tres tiempos que se entretejen para forjar una unica historia. Tres historias que hablan de dolor, culpa y confesiones.Una novela sobrecogedora y deslumbrante, construida con una brillantisima arquitectura que le permite al autor penetrar hasta la medula de las historias -de la historia- que nos relata.
Brutal and overwhelming, Confession wrestles with the legacy of Argentina's past and the passions of one young girl.
There are mysteries in the world of man, just as there are in the Kingdom of God, and that they too, albeit quite differently, are unfathomable.
When Mirta Lopez looks out the dining room window, she sees a slim, self-possessed older boy on his way back from school. It's 1941 in provincial Argentina, and the sight of the Videla's eldest son has awakened in her the first uncertain, unnerving vibrations of desire. Naturally, she confesses. But she cannot stop herself. Thirty years later, Videla is a general, leading the ruling military junta, and a cell of young revolutionaries plot an ingenious attack on him, and the regime. Writing from the present into the past, Martin Kohan maps the contours of Argentina's 20th Century, but finds his center in one woman-devout, headstrong, lit up with ideas of right and wrong-not the grand historical figures of her lifetime's omnipresent, brutalizing history. "There is an art to keeping lives constant, not allowing them to be altered by facts that are merely external." And there is great beauty in Confession , its decades and landscapes, and the legacy of love and guilt playing out in one family and against the background of dictatorship's traumas.
Tres historias que forman parte de una misma historia. En 1941, en una ciudad de provincias argentina, una nina con?esa a un sacerdote los primeros y difusos impulsos sexuales que nota en su cuerpo, relacionados con la atraccion que siente por un joven apellidado Videla que pasa cada dia bajo su ventana. En 1977 un grupo de jovenes revolucionarios prepara un atentado en un aerodromo para liquidar a un Videla que ya no es joven y es conocido por todos. Y, por ultimo, una anciana -la nina de la primera historia- juega una partida de cartas con su nieto, que ha ido a visitarla a la residencia donde pasa sus dias, y entre jugada y jugada le cuenta lo que le sucedio a su hijo, el padre del chico, en lo que resulta una nueva confesion. Tres historias y tres tiempos que se entretejen para forjar una unica historia. Tres historias que hablan de dolor, culpa y confesiones.Una novela sobrecogedora y deslumbrante, construida con una brillantisima arquitectura que le permite al autor penetrar hasta la medula de las historias -de la historia- que nos relata.
Brutal and overwhelming, Confession wrestles with the legacy of Argentina's past and the passions of one young girl.
There are mysteries in the world of man, just as there are in the Kingdom of God, and that they too, albeit quite differently, are unfathomable.
When Mirta Lopez looks out the dining room window, she sees a slim, self-possessed older boy on his way back from school. It's 1941 in provincial Argentina, and the sight of the Videla's eldest son has awakened in her the first uncertain, unnerving vibrations of desire. Naturally, she confesses. But she cannot stop herself. Thirty years later, Videla is a general, leading the ruling military junta, and a cell of young revolutionaries plot an ingenious attack on him, and the regime. Writing from the present into the past, Martin Kohan maps the contours of Argentina's 20th Century, but finds his center in one woman-devout, headstrong, lit up with ideas of right and wrong-not the grand historical figures of her lifetime's omnipresent, brutalizing history. "There is an art to keeping lives constant, not allowing them to be altered by facts that are merely external." And there is great beauty in Confession , its decades and landscapes, and the legacy of love and guilt playing out in one family and against the background of dictatorship's traumas.
Reviews / Votes
"An expertly structured, morally complicated, and surprisingly timely blend of fact and fiction." -Kirkus"Beguiling." -Publishers Weekly
"Hypnotic prose. A writer who owns a literary universe and a style all his own; a writer of unquestionable solidity." -El periodico
"A must-read." -Morning Star
"A stupendous novel." -El Pais
"One of Argentina's greatest living writers." -La gaceta literaria
"A fantastic writer whose texts question established ideas." -Letras Libres
"Kohan works with tradition and with the Borgesian idea of the traitor and the hero. He chooses three situations and explores them minutely." -La Nacion
"Kohan's novel understands and helps to understand; it delimits, records, pursues and reaches the most slippery crevices of history." -Letralia
"The end result is a fluid, disturbing novel, one that neither resorts to low blows nor commonplaces when it comes to the military regime and the disappeared, but puts its finger on that concept that still causes unease when spoken aloud: civilian complicity." -La primera piedra
"Martin Kohan is becoming an obligatory name in Argentinian literature." -Pagina/12
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Praise for Martin Kohan
"The worthy successor of Borges, Sabato and Bioy Casares." -Le Devoir
"An expertly structured, morally complicated, and surprisingly timely blend of fact and fiction." -Kirkus
"Beguiling." -Publishers Weekly
"The prose of Argentinian writer Martin Kohan, above all in the most recent books, conveys a clinical precision and cool distance. From one novel to another, however, the effects are different. - Edmundo Paz Soldan"" -Edmundo Paz Soldan , author of TURING'S DELIRIUM and NORTE
"Hypnotic prose. A writer who owns a literary universe and a style all his own; a writer of unquestionable solidity." -El periodico
"Confession delves into Kohan's poetics in an agile and determined manner, preserving his affectionate distance from the intimate affairs of his characters, as well as his freedom vis-a-vis militant writing" -Latin American Literature Today
"A must-read." -Morning Star
"A stupendous novel." -El Pais
"One of Argentina's greatest living writers." -La gaceta literaria
"A fantastic writer whose texts question established ideas." -Letras Libres
"Kohan works with tradition and with the Borgesian idea of the traitor and the hero. He chooses three situations and explores them minutely." -La Nacion
"Kohan's novel understands and helps to understand; it delimits, records, pursues and reaches the most slippery crevices of history." -Letralia
"The end result is a fluid, disturbing novel, one that neither resorts to low blows nor commonplaces when it comes to the military regime and the disappeared, but puts its finger on that concept that still causes unease when spoken aloud: civilian complicity." -La primera piedra
"Martin Kohan is becoming an obligatory name in Argentinian literature." -Pagina/12
"With a gift for totally natural dialogue, Kohan writes with an elegant lightness, paying great attention to rhythm. His specialty is the measured, exact word. Impeccable" -El Mundo
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More details
Language
Spanish
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
188 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-913867-67-6 (9781913867676)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Martin Kohan ensena Teoria Literaria en la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Ha publicado varios libros de ensayos, cuentos y siete novelas hasta el momento. Su obra es publicada por editoriales de enorme prestigio en Europa como Anagrama (Espana), Einaudi (Italia), Seuil (Francia) y Suhrkamp (Alemania). El XXV Premio Herralde de Novela otorgado a Ciencias morales , constituyo su definitiva consagracion como uno de los autores mas importantes del actual panorama literario internacional.
Martin Kohan was born in Buenos Aires in 1967. He teaches Literary Theory at the University of Buenos Aires. To date, he has published several books of essays and short stories, and seven novels. His work has appeared with publishers of great prestige in Europe such as Anagrama (Spain), Einaudi (Italy), Seuil (France) and Suhrkamp (Germany). The 25th Premio Herralde de Novela awarded to Ciencias Morales (Moral Sciences ) consecrated him as one of the most important authors in today's international literary panorama.
Martin Kohan was born in Buenos Aires in 1967. He teaches Literary Theory at the University of Buenos Aires. To date, he has published several books of essays and short stories, and seven novels. His work has appeared with publishers of great prestige in Europe such as Anagrama (Spain), Einaudi (Italy), Seuil (France) and Suhrkamp (Germany). The 25th Premio Herralde de Novela awarded to Ciencias Morales (Moral Sciences ) consecrated him as one of the most important authors in today's international literary panorama.