Southerly
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
On the eve of an important battle, a colonel is visited in his tent by an indigenous woman with a message to pass on. A man sets about renovating the house of his childhood, and starts to feel that he might be rebuilding his own life in the process. At a private clinic to treat the morbidly obese, a caregiver has issues of her own…Jorge Consiglio presents a universe of seemingly unrelated tales, linked perhaps by a certain rhythm in the prose or the subtle dimensions of violence and perversion. These are stories of immigration, marginality, history, intimacy and obsession which are masterful and deeply touching. They each present their own distinctive view of the world through the lives of their respective characters – who are as dissimilar as they are complex – and the profound transformations they undergo. As reflections on the uncontrollable nature of life, as depictions of how even the most innocent detail can become a threat, these stories do not offer neat endings but rather remain open to the reader’s sense of inquisitiveness.Southerly is a perfect introduction to what has been called ‘the Consiglian logic of story-telling’ (Cabezón Cámara), in which events don’t always occur sequentially, and where the reader quickly learns to tiptoe between the tiniest of details, as if walking through a minefield.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Argentine writer Consiglio (Fate) explores the randomness of life in this eclectic collection. An estate agent analyzes chess games with his friend in the title story, a group of young students find a place to blow off steam in "The Terrace," and "The Complexities of Matter" follows a Colombian woman as she tries to make a life for herself. There is little in the way of plot, but the stories can be understood according to the terms of "Correspondence" protagonist Mariela: "I like to think there are hidden connections in life. Any act, for reasons unknown, can be connected to another act." Most of the stories include a fulcrum point—a car crash, a bad fall, an explosion—that opens a new way for a character to evaluate their life. In "Travel, Travel" and "The Running Man," those paths become literal as characters traverse the countryside in search of a way home. Consiglio is less successful when employing shock value—he describes a bullet "obliterating" a woman's head in "Fire"—than in locating his characters' quiet interiority. Though uneven, this has plenty of glimmering moments.
