The Invention of Morel

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Adolfo Bioy Casares

New York Review Books, New York, 2008; originally published 1940, Spanish, English

Fiction

ISBN: 9781590170571

From the Publisher. Jorge Luis Borges declared The Invention of Morel a masterpiece of plotting, comparable to The Turn of the Screw and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Set on a mysterious island, Bioy’s novella is a story of suspense and exploration, as well as a wonderfully unlikely romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious.

Inspired by Bioy Casares’s fascination with the movie star Louise Brooks, The Invention of Morel has gone on to live a secret life of its own. Greatly admired by Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and Octavio Paz, the novella helped to usher in Latin American fiction’s now famous postwar boom. As the model for Alain Resnais and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s Last Year in Marienbad, it also changed the history of film.

On 3 book lists

Elizabeth Diller

On Elizabeth Diller’s Book List

Prem Krishnamurthy

On Prem Krishnamurthy’s Book List

Bioy Casares, a contemporary and friend of Jorge Luis Borges, ingeniously employs the replicating—and revisionary—structure of memory to craft a novella as tightly wrought as it is unpredictable. The first edition's illustrations, by Norah Borges (Jorge Luis's sister), alone make the book worth examining.

Ricardo Scofidio

On Ricardo Scofidio’s Book List

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