Once you start reading Aira, you don't want to stop.--Roberto Bolaño

I get so absorbed by an Aira novel that upon finishing I don't remember anything. It's like having a complex cinematic dream that dissipates upon awakening.--Patti Smith "The New York Times Book Review"

Sui generis is really the only way to accurately describe César Aira. He's by turns a realist, a magical realist and a surrealist -- and therefore not really any of them. Anything can happen in an Aira novel, and almost everything does.--Tyler Malone "Los Angeles Times"

To love the novels of César Aira you must have a taste for the absurd, a tolerance for the obscurely philosophical, and a willingness to laugh out loud against your better judgment.--Marcela Valdes "NPR"

Everything in Aira has that Mad Scientist feel to it.--Jacob Mikanowski "The Millions"

Astonishing--turns Don Quixote into Picasso.-- "Harper's"

Aira's works are like slim cabinets of wonder, full of unlikely juxtapositions. His unpredictability is masterful.--Rivka Galchen

He summons up a genie who can do everything but fulfill our wishes.-- "New York Review of Books"

A lampoon of our need for narrative. No one today does metafiction like Aira.--Robyn Creswell "The Paris Review"

An Aesop in Breton's clothing.--Thomas Hachard "Los Angeles Review of Books"

Outlandish B-movie fantasies are all part of the game. His best-known works are nonsensically hysterical. To love César Aira you must have a taste for the absurd, a tolerance for the obscurely philosophical, and a willingness to laugh out loud against your better judgment.--Marcela Valdes "NPR Books"

Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation

Pub date: 2026-06-30

Length: 384 pages