Slow Elephants of Milan

Slow Elephants of Milan

$18.95

ÁNGEL BONOMINI

Enigmatic fictions from a lost master of Argentine literature.

A man and woman on a road trip make an unplanned detour to Laar, an empty city of palaces and canals that may be no city at all. Two gaucho rebels are captured during war—one finds freedom in writing stories while the other is driven mad with envy. And a traveler in postwar Italy is inspired, almost against his will, to record the mysterious progress of two elephants through the foggy streets of Milan.

In twelve short fictions threaded together by an insatiable curiosity about time, memory, art, and the divine, Ángel Bonomini (The Novices of Lerna) explores “the sweet and subtle interrelations of things.” Originally published in 1978 and appearing in English for the first time, Slow Elephants of Milan is an indispensable addition to our literature of the strange and fantastic.

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Praise for Ángel Bonomini

"I’m so enthralled by the book that one night, when Borges came over, I proposed we read the only story I hadn’t read yet: “The Novices of Lerna.” We were dazzled. The story is admirably told, with much wisdom, everything is spot on.”—Letter from Adolfo Bioy Casares to Ángel Bonomini, September 18, 1972

“Bonomini’s imagination has a watercolor lightness that sets him apart from his contemporaries.”—Natasha Wimmer, The New York Review of Books

“Jordan Landsman's excellent first English translation of The Novices of Lerna offers the opportunity to rescue Bonomini from undeserved oblivion.”—Alberto Manguel, The Times Literary Supplement

"These surreal stories reckon with identity, perception, and existence... A beguiling blend of the cerebral and the visceral."—Kirkus Reviews

"[Bonomini] makes a noteworthy English-language debut with this entrancing collection."—Publishers Weekly

“A ghost of a book that haunts and perplexes, enticing each reader in with its mastery of language and craft.”—Asymptote

"Bizarre and brilliant… once I finished The Novices of Lerna, I wanted to turn back to the start and read it all over again."—John Self, The Telegraph

"Bonomini's fantastic collection [allows] the worlds of his stories to slither out and off the page, offer forbidden fruit, and shoot readers into a fallen and forgotten world where the real is absurd and the absurd is really the most true thing on offer."—The Rumpus

“Bonomini regularly turns language on its head while stubbornly refusing to engage in simple moralism. Instead, through a menagerie of passionate, obsessive, and deranged personae, he suggests that we are mysteries even to ourselves."—Buenos Aires Herald

"A welcome addition to Argentinian literature in translation—and to Weird fiction the world over."—Tobias Carroll, Reactor