Ten

An astonishing collection of short stories by one of the most daring prose experimentalists of the 20th centuryA taxidermied parrot, insulted by a stodgy uncle, comes violently alive and batters the poor fool to death with its beak. A terrible tyrant, Zar Palemón, presides over grotesque ritualized sex acts in his court―which is itself contained in a demonic gemstone the size of a fist. And deep in the Andes, in a hidden cave, an unremarkable house cat waits to trap its hapless victim with a Gorgon’s gaze and engage him in a staring contest on which the fate of the cosmos just might depend.Such are a few of the bizarre adventures found within Juan Emar’s mind-bending collection of short stories, Ten. Allegory? Parody? Horror? Surrealism? Yes to all, and none of the above: where lesser writers mark their end-point, the unclassifiable Juan Emar jumps off, straight into the deep end. Life is far from still in Emar’s world, where statues come alive, gaseous vampires stalk, and our hopes and fears materialize in a web of shocking interconnections unified by twisted logic and crystalline prose.Now, Ten is available in English for the first time, deftly translated by Megan McDowell and with an introduction by César Aira, who writes: “Emar has neither precedents nor equals; his echoes and affinities―Lautréamont, Macedonio Fernández, Gombrowicz―flow from his readers’ own inclinations.” Byzantine and vivid, intricate and bizarre, this quiver of shorts by Chile’s most idiosyncratic mad genius of literature will leave readers astounded for decades to come.

Alejandro Zambra

"Juan Emar, ahead of his time, was no doubt writing for readers of the future, and it’s as arrogant as it is exciting to suppose that those readers of the future are us."

Roberto Bolaño

"Juan Emar, the Chilean writer who bears a marked resemblance to the monument to the unknown soldier."

Pablo Neruda

"The forerunner of them all."

Roberto Wong, Letras Libres

"The wonder of Emar’s universe doesn’t derive from the numerological matrix of his structure, or even the secret code he used to criticize the literary conservatism of his day, but in his imagination, which explodes like the big bang and overflows, giving rise to all possibilities."

César Aira

"Emar has no precents, and no equals."

Hanson O’Haver, The Nation

"Weird and charming."

Kirkus Reviews

"Originally published in 1937, this collection by Emar (1893-1964) arrived at the height of the Modernist movement; his eeriness and fluid, satirical approach to storytelling put him in league with better-known European and North American contemporaries. Indeed, his work seemed to anticipate the elliptical style that would make Borges world famous... Offbeat yarns from a sui generis author."

Colm McKenna, Times Literary Supplement

"Emar's stories expand and surprise, so, even when one is alert to his penchant for trickery, their focus and direction remain unpredictable… It is this strangeness and lack of inhibition that makes his prose so captivating. We are lucky to finally have the short stories of this remarkable storyteller and thinker available in English."

About the Author

Juan Emar is the pen name of Chilean writer, painter, and art critic Álvaro Yáñez Bianchi. Born in Chile in 1893, he was a strong advocate of the artistic avant-garde of the 1920s and 30s, and his critical writings helped revolutionize the art scene in his country. Under-appreciated in his time, he is now considered to be one of the most important 20th-century Latin American writers.Megan McDowell has won the English PEN award, the Premio Valle-Inclán, and a 2020 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; she also has been nominated four times for the International Booker Prize. She won the 2022 National Book Award in translation alongside Samanta Schweblin for Seven Empty Houses.

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