Staff Picks

You may never quite know what to expect going into it, but you can always be sure of a singular, engaging, imaginative, quirky, inimitable, and worthwhile experience.

Aira's Shantytown, while a bit unlike his previous works already available in English translation, feels just like any other Aira outing. Although Shantytown is without the genre-shifting that characterizes so many of his novel(la)s, there'd be no mistaking it for the work of another author.

It was so unexpected, and at the same time so horrifyingly opportune, that her whole being was seized by a spasm of terror, and she saw him as a bloodthirsty Stegosaurus hoisting his rocky neck from a lake of oil, on the night of the end of the world.

Set in the Flores district slums of Buenos Aires, Shantytown follows Maxi, a kind yet lubberly fellow who splits his time between working out at the gym and helping the neighborhood scavengers load their collected bounties. As an enigmatic drug, Proxidine, proliferates, Maxi soon finds himself (and his sister) entangled in the squalid district's violence. Add in a few other shady characters, a wayward cop, and a labyrinth of message-laden lighting, and you have yet another impressive work from the prolific Argentine master.

Had he been able to use his gifts for good, he would have achieved great things, but he chose the infernal path of artificial contiguity.

Shantytown is the ninth of Aira's works to be rendered from the Spanish — with five or six dozen more to go. As his renown continues to grow stateside, presumably (and hopefully!) the estimable folks at New Directions will see to it that another two or three titles are forthcoming each year. Aira is undoubtedly one of the most original and refreshing voices coming out of South America, and reading his books provides for a level of sheer enjoyment that may well parallel the fun he seems to have in writing them.

In an old interview with The Quarterly Conversation, translator Chris Andrews described Aira thus:

I think Aira is just as exciting [as Bolaño], and quite different. Aira's style, in most of his books (How I Became a Nun is exceptional) is limpid and simple. The sentences don't have surprising shapes. But the stories take extremely surprising turns, sometimes jumping from one genre into another, leaving just about everyone wondering why...Once you're addicted to Aira, you can be disappointed by a swerve like that, but somehow you prefer being disappointed by him to being satisfied by many other writers.

Indeed.
Recommended by Jeremy, Powells.com

Available November 2013
Your price: $13.95
New - Trade Paper

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Before Declan knows what has hit him, he has a boat full of bodies — both human and otherwise — along for the ride, "...ranging in size from [enormous] to an infinitesimal acorn barnacle, just born as this sentence began, and no bigger than the period which is about to arrive, here." No, there will be no solitude for Declan — and how lucky for us. The Plover is a rambling, charming sea voyage, full of thrills, danger, and narrow escapes.

It's also an excellent observation on the nature of things unseen: on what may be, on ideas, on imaginings, aspirations, and dreams. There is so much substance underneath Doyle's dazzling, rich language, I just wanted to read each sentence over and over until every whisper of nuance was absorbed, recognized, and experienced. Reading Doyle's writing is an enchanting discovery of how shattering and awe-inspiring language can be, and his literary contortions are both improbable and captivating at the same time. 

Remember the first book you loved as a child? Remember how you wished so hard you lived in that book? That feeling is Doyle's "normal," and we should all be so lucky to live in his world.
Recommended by Dianah, Powells.com

Available April 8, 2014
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When the author appeared to kill off Rawlins in 2007's Blonde Faith, I mourned the end of a great series. But Mosley delighted his fans with Easy's return this past summer. In Little Green, Easy is cruising the Sunset Strip during the Summer of Love, recovering from his injuries as he investigates the disappearance of a young black man on a bad acid trip and his reappearance with over $200,000 he can't explain.

If you're an Easy fan, reading Little Green is like slipping on a comfortable pair of shoes. All your favorite supporting players are back (plus a surprise return). And if you've never read the series, I urge you to start at the beginning with Devil in a Blue Dress. You won't be sorry.
Recommended by Mike H, Powells.com

List Price $25.95
Your price: $17.95
Used - Hardcover

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