Bibliograph

Ema, the captive, Câesar Aira ; translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews

Type

Label

Ema, the captive, Câesar Aira ; translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Intended audience

General adult

Literary Form

fiction

Main title

Ema, the captive

Medium

electronic resource eBook

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Responsibility statement

Câesar Aira ; translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews

Summary

Ema The Captive, César Aira's second novel, is perhaps closest in style to his popular An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter and The Hare In nineteenth-century Argentina, Ema, a delicate woman of indeterminate origins, is captured by soldiers and taken, along with with her newborn babe, to live as a concubine in a crude fort on the very edges of civilization. The trip is appalling (deprivations and rapes prevail along the way), yet the real story commences once Ema arrives at the fort, where she takes on a succession of lovers among the soldiers and Indians, leading to a brave and grand entrepreneurial experiment. As is usual with Aira's work, the wonder of the book is in the details of customs, beauty, and language, and the curious, perplexing reality of human nature

Contributor

Creator