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565 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1998
Of “The South,” which is perhaps my best story, let it suffice for me to suggest that it can be read as a direct narrative of novelistic events, and also in another way.The main character is Juan Dahlmann, a mixture of German and Spanish ancestry, whose life is mundane but who dreams vaguely of a more romantic life, inspired by the Flores side of his heritage and the Flores ranch in the South that he owns but has never visited.
One of the most famous lines in Spanish literature is this: Nadie lo vio desembarcar an la unanime noche: “No-one saw him slip from the boat in the unanimous night...”
(‘A Note on the Translation’, from Selected Stories, by Andrew Hurley)
‘No-one saw him disembark in the unanimous night...’
(‘The Circular Ruins’, from Labyrinths, translated by James E. Irby)