As the novel of ideas about memory and language with an intricate weaving of stories, it's not for those readers who look for plot-based novels. But for the rest of us who enjoy meditative narratives, it's a special treat.

“Austral” – Carlos Fonseca (translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell)

"literature was precisely what arose when language foundered."

Thanks to @netgalley and @fsgbooks for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

QOTD: do you ever read a book that you KNOW is great, but just feels above your reach of understanding?

Austral is a beautiful book of incredible writing, a Russian doll of books within novels within books, but one that I found difficult to fully pin down. The narrative centres on professor Julio, who receives a letter informing him of the death of an old friend, acclaimed writer Aliza Abravenal. The letter informs him that she had tasked him with finishing her final novel, one she realized she would never finish.

Travelling to her estate in the Andes, Julio discovers that there are two works he must finish: the novel, set in a colony called Nova Germania and seemingly based on Abravenal’s life, as well as a dictionary of loss that she started after a stroke left her with aphasia. These two books serve as a launching point of even more stories and philosophies, explorations of language and memory that are beautiful in their telling – this feels like a book that could and should be studied for its allusions and references.

Do I feel that this book comes together fully? Not really – I remember individual ideas and themes more than the narrative as a whole, which might be due to my quick reading style not allowing me to see the depths and connections that this book contains. I think it deserves a more knowledgeable and pensive reader than myself, and that could be you, so why not check it out? You’ll definitely come away with something.

This is a really beautiful book that I would put on the “Literature for Philosophy and English Majors” shelf, because even after reading it, I’m not sure I got all of the references. Perhaps not even half. The ideas feel fragmentary, and revelations come only very slowly, so you’re carried along in a dream-like state right to the end of the book, where, to be honest, I’m not sure if I found answers to the questions that had been posed. In short, this is a literary fugue.

But, it is beautiful! A university professor goes in pursuit of answers to a mystery involving a manuscript left by an estranged and recently deceased friend. There is a subplot (although important to the story) about New Germany, a settlement founded by anti-Semites in Paraguay, with a concurrent thread on Indigenous South Americans. The main themes of the book are memory, trauma, delusion, and disappearing cultures.

Where the book excelled for me: a section referencing Guilio Camillo’s Theatre of Memory, where traumatised villagers try to reconstruct memories of their village and their past after a terrible event. This got me thinking quite deeply about the democide in my own country, and about how healing could happen—a way to access the past separately from trauma. I also loved the books within the book, particularly (mild spoiler) the included graphics.

So: recommended. This is a quick but quite demanding read, with a formally inventive structure. Recommended for people who like their books to challenge them. I plan to read it again soon.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC.

This is not an easy read (I know, not every novel must be easy) but Fonesca lost me early on and it became more work than enjoyment, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I know I'm the poor for not having finished this, which will be appreciated by fans of experimental and or literary fiction.

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. Julio has left his South American roots behind for a life as professor in America. When his wife goes to France on an extended visit, Julio is brought back down south as an old friend, acclaimed writer Aliza Abravenal, requests that Julio edit her last book after her demise. Julio finds a novel that starts with an antisemitic commune founded in Paraguay by Elizabeth Foster-Nietzsche, but he also finds that Aliza has started a dictionary of loss. Aliza finds that, after a stroke has left her mute, no one understands language better than someone who has lost it. And that is just a few of the storylines that seem to branch in so many directions, sometimes playfully, sometimes painfully. This short book always dazzles with the richness of its thoughts.

I wanted to enjoy this but overall found the story, characters, and plot to be something not what I was longing for or one that I would pick back up.