A modernist urban novel in the tradition of James Joyce, Adam Buenosayres is a tour-de-force that does for Buenos Aires what Carlos Fuentes did for Mexico City or José Lezama Lima did for Havana - chronicles a city teeming with life in all its clever and crass, rude and intelligent forms. Employing a range of literary styles and a variety of voices, Leopoldo Marechal parodies and celebrates Argentina's most brilliant literary and artistic generation, the martinfierristas of the 1920s, among them Jorge Luis Borges. First published in 1948 during the polarizing reign of Juan Perón, the novel was hailed by Julio Cortázar as an extraordinary event in twentieth-century Argentine literature. Set over the course of three break-neck days, Adam Buenosayres follows the protagonist through an apparent metaphysical awakening, a battle for his soul fought by angels and demons, and a descent through a place resembling a comic version of Dante's hell. Presenting both a breathtaking translation and thorough explanatory notes, Norman Cheadle captures the limitless language of Marechal's original and guides the reader along an unmatched journey through the culture of Buenos Aires. This first-ever English translation brings to light Marechal's masterwork with an introduction outlining the novel's importance in various contexts - Argentine, Latin American, and world literature - and with notes illuminating its literary, cultural, and historical references. A salient feature of the Argentine canon, Adam Buenosayres is both a path-breaking novel and a key text for understanding Argentina's cultural and political history.

Leopoldo Marechal's profile page

Norman Cheadle is an associate professor of Hispanic studies at Laurentian University. His publications include The Ironic Apocalypse in the Novels of Leopoldo Marechal (Tamesis, 2000). He is currently working on a SSRHC-funded project to produce a critical edition of Leopoldo Marechal’s Adán Buenosayres in English translation.

Québécois d’origine et Franco-Ontarien d’adoption, Lucien Pelletier est présentement professeur agrégé au Département de philosophie de l’Université de Sudbury. Il a consacré de nombreux articles à l’esthétique, à la philosophie de la religion et à la philosophie politique contemporaine d’Allemagne et de France. Il a aussi traduit plusieurs ouvrages philosophiques de l’allemand au français.

Norman Cheadle's profile page

Sheila Ethier's profile page

“This translation of Adán Buenosayres is and will be the definitive one for many years to come.” A Contracorriente

“Norman Cheadle calls Adam Buenosayres an “image-obsessed wordsmith”; readers now have Cheadle to thank as our wordsmith who has unveiled Marechal’s masterpiece in English. I soon put aside my copy in Spanish as Cheadle’s prose won me over. What higher pr

“Adam Buenosayres is one of the final classics of international modernism to reach an English-speaking audience, which will be extremely well-served by Norman Cheadle and Sheila Ethier’s superlatively fluent, copiously annotated translation.” Richard Can

“Adám Buenosayres is one of the most outstanding anomalies of Argentinian literature and Norman Cheadle’s translation is excellent and faithful. It should be in any library with an important Latin American collection.” David William Foster, School of International Letters and Cultures, Arizona State University

“Written between 1931 and 1948, Adam Buenosayres, newly reissued, is closest to Joyce's Ulysses in its singularity, its excessiveness, and impressive literary references, to wit, Homer, Virgil, and Cervantes. Hailed in 1949 by the young Cortázar whose or