2.5
Ema the Captive
ByPublisher Description
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.Download the free Fable app
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities3 Reviews
2.5
aguuus 🎀
Created over 1 year agoShare
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Amy Verkruissen
Created about 4 years agoShare
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“Beautifully descriptive book about a mans journey into the jungles. Surprising bits of culture and aristocracy to be found where the wildness takes over.”
angelin chua
Created over 7 years agoShare
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“I feel like the review that The Millions gave explained my feelings about this book the best – "His novels are eccentric clones of reality, where the lights are brighter, the picture is sharper and everything happens at the speed of thought. You don't know where you are or what you are looking at, but the air is full of electricity."
Ema, the Captive was beautiful in the most primitive way, sensual and raw, matter-of-fact yet deep. Its lyrical observations of the natural world and of the habits of the Indians were captivating. The very title of the book makes one wonder: Ema as the captive, has actually been free. Her "captivity" was her freedom, and instead of being an inferior being to her captors, she was her own person in every way, which came as a surprise towards the middle of the book, in contrary to the beginning.
The question of money and and indifference, and the morality of nature were also explored in subtle ways. Questions were asked by inconsequential characters, as though reflecting passing thoughts that wouldn't have mattered otherwise, but had added depth to the story in every manner.
This is really an unexpectedly beautiful read, and like the Monkey Festival in the book, it ends as it begins – with nothing.”
About César Aira
CÉSAR AIRA was born in Coronel Pringles, Argentina in 1949, and has lived in Buenos Aires since 1967. He taught at the University of Buenos Aires (about Copi and Rimbaud) and at the University of Rosario (Constructivism and Mallarmé), and has translated and edited books from France, England, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela. Perhaps one of the most prolific writers in Argentina, and certainly one of the most talked about in Latin America, Aira has published more than 100 books to date in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and Spain, which have been translated for France, Great Britain, Italy, Brazil, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Romania, Russia, and the United States. One novel, La prueba, has been made into a feature film, and How I Became a Nun was chosen as one of Argentina’s ten best books. Besides essays and novels Aira writes regularly for the Spanish newspaper El País. In addition to winning the 2021 Formentor Prize, he has received a Guggenheim scholarship, and was shortlisted for the Rómulo Gallegos prize and the Booker International Prize.
Other books by César Aira
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