New York: Harper & Row, (1984) dj. Hardcover first edition - In this satire of political conditions in Argentina, winner of the Premio Casa de las Americas literary prize when it was originally published in Mexico in 1979, the gods of ancient Greece try to save the members of a poetry club from murder by a death squad. "The novel begins on a summer evening during the worst of Argentina's 'dirty war,' when the members of a group that calls itself 'Polimnia' gather at a weekly meeting place to read their poetry. . . The gods become alarmed when they learn that a paramilitary death squad is preparing to kill 12 of the group's members to avenge the death of a general. [They] decide to make the mortals' last hours as happy as possible and permeate their meeting with what for the Polimnians is a rare spirituality, eroticism and harmony (and for the reader a rare hilarity). . Their reprieve, however, is only temporary and conditional. Twelve other victims are chosen to replace them. Several aspects of the question of accountability are addressed by this well-written, funny yet serious novel. In the novel, the unacknowledged henchmen of officialdom clearly do not limit themselves to following orders. One calls torture 'fun,' and another becomes infuriated when a raid is called off. A second aspect has to do with the tendency to ignore official criminal behavior and underestimate its implications, an attitude that is reflected by the Polimnians in various ways. They remain oblivious to the plot against them, to what is occurring in their land. But perhaps the most sinister and terrifying aspect of the accountability question is the role chance or randomness plays as an indiscriminate instrument of repression." (New York Times) Translated by Toby Talbot.
vi, 230 pp. ISBN: 0-060152524.