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Land of Smoke
Land of Smoke | Sara Gallardo
2 posts | 1 read | 16 to read
Dazzling, hallucinatory stories by Sara Gallardo, a rediscovered Argentinian contemporary of Garca Mrquez An old man wakes up one morning to find that his beloved garden, the envy of all his neighbours, is floating away with him on board; a bored young woman decides to start a new, double life in Buenos Aires with the useful prop of a spare head she keeps in her closet; a meek German missionary leaves Paraguay for the Pampas, completely unprepared for what he will encounter there at night. Land of Smoke is the first English translation of this recently rediscovered major Argentinian writer. Dazzling and hallucinatory, the stories collected here recall the masters of magical realism but with Gallardos distinctive, idiosyncratic slant. Sara Gallardo was a celebrated and prize-winning Argentinian writer, born in Buenos Aires in 1931. Her first book was published in 1958, and by the time she died in 1988, she had published novels, short stories, childrens books, and essays. Written after the death of her second husband, Land of Smoke is the first of her books to be translated into English.
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batsy
batsy
Land of Smoke | Sara Gallardo
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I loved how enchanted the world became through these short stories & flash fiction. Houses floating away. Captive animals making a bid for freedom. Basque deserters living in a cave with unknown creatures. Stories about animals, far from anthropomorphising them & becoming twee, conveyed their wildness with dignity. Gallardo's prose is exquisite, like a cross between Clarice Lispector & Fleur Jaeggy. Poetic, haunting, imaginative, & memorable.

vivastory Great review. Sounds fascinating. 6y
batsy I read it fast to finish an ARC before it expired, but it's best read slowly over a period of time, I think... Like poetry 💜 6y
batsy @vivastory Thank you! It's the kind of strange and surreal that I adore, but with very taut writing. 6y
See All 20 Comments
vivastory I haven't read much Pushkin Press, but they seem to be publishing exemplary books 6y
readordierachel Sounds wonderful! 6y
Tamra Sounds great! 6y
Abailliekaras Sounds amazing and I love Pushkin Press. 6y
RohitSawant Awesome review! Sounds really interesting. 6y
BookishTrish Great review! 6y
Centique I‘m stacking! And I‘d read a book full of your reviews too you know, you make it sound so good 😍 6y
Cathythoughts Great review & pic ❤️. You are flying through the books 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 6y
batsy @ReadOrDieRachel @Tamra Another one of those marmite books, I think 😁 But I enjoyed it 👍🏽 6y
batsy @Abailliekaras They do seem to put out some truly intriguing books! 6y
batsy @rohit-sawant @BookishTrish @Cathythoughts Thank you! ☺️ 6y
batsy @Centique Thank you, that's such a lovely thing to hear ❤️ I do hope you enjoy it if you read it! 6y
GatheringBooks i have placed this in my wishlist on book dep. maybe when i have lifted my self-imposed book ban, i will get my own copy. 6y
Tamra @batsy 😆👌🏾 6y
Moray_Reads I love Pushkin Press and my only criticism would be that too few of their Pushkin Collection of rediscovered works are by women so I'll definitely be adding this to my collection! 6y
batsy @GatheringBooks I often just go look at my Book Depository wishlist and dream of the day when it will be mine, all of it, all mine... 😂🤩 6y
batsy @Moray_Reads Yes! And I saw a blurb by Samanta Schweblin saying it's one of her favourite books, and that made me very happy 🙂 6y
105 likes6 stack adds20 comments
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batsy
batsy
Land of Smoke | Sara Gallardo
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Just started this by Sara Gallardo, an Argentinian writer. It was originally published in 1977 & Pushkin is publishing the English translation. The stories are immediately fresh, vivid, & strange. The world feels so mysterious in these pieces. I can see the influence she must have had on writers like Samanta Schweblin. Celebrated Latin American writers in translation tend to be men. Kind of sad that this is the first I'm hearing about Gallardo.

Cathythoughts Beautifully written post 🙏🏻❤️ 6y
TrishB On the other hand - we are at least starting to hear about such female writers! ❤️ 6y
batsy @Cathythoughts Thank you! ❤️❤️ 6y
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batsy That's very true @TrishB 💕 6y
Izai.Amorim 1977 was a very dark year in Argentina. Does she mention the political situation in the book? 6y
batsy @Izai.Amorim It's a collection of short stories that I've only just started, but it's so surreal and lots of symbolism in the magical realist elements. People adrift, darkness, captivity, things like that. So I think there's a lot going on underneath the surface (and most might also be going over my head, as I'm only familiar with that history on a surface level). 6y
Izai.Amorim @batsy Probably the only way to get through censorship? Darkness and captivity do sound very appropriate. The bastards were throwing people alive from airplanes into the Atlantic Ocean... No opposition tolerated. 6y
batsy 😔😔 You're right @Izai.Amorim I think that's why a lot of them turned to magical realism as a mode of storytelling. When I was reading Fever Dream, I tried to learn more about the military junta, it was devastating—especially the part about kids taken from leftists who were killed and imprisoned and raised in the homes of those in support of fascism. I think that was an element of Argentinian history that was being addressed in Fever Dream
[tagged book]Fever Dream
6y
Izai.Amorim Their dictatorship was short, about 6 years. Ours was more than 20 years. But the Argentinians managed to kill more people in those 6 years, more brutally, and many times randomly. The Pinochet playbook. Very creepy. 6y
102 likes8 stack adds9 comments