How I Became A Nun

One of the more striking characteristics of César Aira's fiction is how much fun it seems he must be having while writing his stories. Not limited by the constraints of genre, Aira's novellas often move effortlessly between them, without ever an inkling of it seeming forced or contrived. Despite their relative brevity, Aira's works (though I am unable as yet to determine just how) have an enduring effect far greater than books I thought I enjoyed more than his. This lasting mark may well be testament to Aira's unrestrained storytelling style, as well as his allegiance to originality.

How I Became a Nun is the tale of an aberrant, somewhat precocious six-year-old boy named César Aira (who refers to himself as a girl). After a tainted ice cream cone leads to illness and hospitalization, young César's reality begins to blend with fantasy. As compulsion and curiosity take over, César must learn to navigate the hardships of both the first grade and the world around him (her).

Aira's works are neither linear narratives nor surreal simply for the sake of it. He, instead, crafts works of great imagination that seem to have been written, above all, for the love of a good story itself. The variety and creativity of his short works is simply bewildering. As his dozens of books slowly make their way into translation, I imagine the immense talent of this prodigious Argentinean will become more widely recognized. Recommended By Jeremy G., Powells.com

So starts Cesar Aira's astounding "autobiographical" novel. Intense and perfect, this invented narrative of childhood experience bristles with dramatic humor at each stage of growing up: a first ice cream, school, reading, games, friendship. The novel begins in Aira's hometown, Coronel Pringles. As self-awareness grows, the story rushes forward in a torrent of anecdotes which transform a world of uneventful happiness into something else: the anecdote becomes adventure, and adventure, fable, and then legend. Between memory and oblivion, reality and fiction, Cesar Aira's retains childhood's main treasures: the reality of fable and the delirium of invention. A few days after his fiftieth birthday, Aira noticed the thin rim of the moon, visible despite the rising sun. When his wife explained the phenomenon to him he was shocked that for fifty years he had known nothing about "something so obvious, so visible." This epiphany led him to write . With a subtle and melancholic sense of humor he reflects on his failures, on the meaning of life and the importance of literature.

Completed in 1989, Aira's near-memoir is a foreboding fable of life and art. An utter faith in his fabulous tales is all this author can offer...such marvelous fantasies. Douglas Messerli, Otis College of Art & Design

"My story, the story of 'how I became a nun, ' began very early in my life; I had just turned six. The beginning is marked by a vivid memory, which I can reconstruct down to the last detail. Before, there is nothing, and after, everything is an extension of the same vivid memory, continuous and unbroken, including the intervals of sleep, up to the point where I took the veil ." So starts Cesar Aira's astounding "autobiographical" novel. Intense and perfect, this invented narrative of childhood experience bristles with dramatic humor at each stage of growing up: a first ice cream, school, reading, games, friendship. The novel begins in Aira's hometown, Coronel Pringles. As self-awareness grows, the story rushes forward in a torrent of anecdotes which transform a world of uneventful happiness into something else: the anecdote becomes adventure, and adventure, fable, and then legend. Between memory and oblivion, reality and fiction, Cesar Aira's How I Became a Nun retains childhood's main treasures: the reality of fable and the delirium of invention. A few days after his fiftieth birthday, Aira noticed the thin rim of the moon, visible despite the rising sun. When his wife explained the phenomenon to him he was shocked that for fifty years he had known nothing about "something so obvious, so visible." This epiphany led him to writeHow I Became a Nun. With a subtle and melancholic sense of humor he reflects on his failures, on the meaning of life and the importance of literature.

A sinisterly funny modern-day that begins with cyanide poisoning and ends in strawberry ice cream.

"A good story and first-rate social science."--

The idea of the Native American living in perfect harmony with nature is one of the most cherished contemporary myths. But how truthful is this larger-than-life image? According to anthropologist Shepard Krech, the first humans in North America demonstrated all of the intelligence, self-interest, flexibility, and ability to make mistakes of human beings anywhere. As Nicholas Lemann put it in , "Krech is more than just a conventional-wisdom overturner; he has a serious larger point to make. . . . Concepts like ecology, waste, preservation, and even the natural (as distinct from human) world are entirely anachronistic when applied to Indians in the days before the European settlement of North America." "Offers a more complex portrait of Native American peoples, one that rejects mythologies, even those that both European and Native Americans might wish to embrace."--

A prolific novelist, playwright, essayist and translator, César Aira (b. 1949, Argentina) has taught at the University of Buenos Aires and at the University of Rosario in Argentina, and has translated and edited books from France, England, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela.

Chris Andrews was born in Newcastle, Australia, in 1962. He teaches in the Language Department of the University of Melbourne. In 2005, his translation of Roberto Bolaño's Distant Star won the Vallé-Inclan Prize.