The Event

A European magician starts a new life in mid-19th-century Argentina in this rich philosophical novel from Saer (Scars), first published in English in 1995. Bianco’s run of fraudulent telepathy and telekinesis performances in Paris ends in public humiliation, prompting him to flee to Sicily. There, he meets a diplomat from Argentina who convinces him to promote immigration to the South American nation. His prize for doing so: a parcel of land in the pampas. Bianco settles on a horse ranch with his teen wife Gina, devotes himself to an import scheme with his business partner, Garay López, and attempts to revive his career as a magician. One day, Bianco unexpectedly finds Gina and Garay sitting together, prompting intense sexual jealousy and paranoia. When Gina discovers she’s pregnant, Bianco becomes convinced that Garay is the child’s father and obsesses over revealing this “secret.” Saer sustains the breakneck pace of a picaresque, and his long, twining sentences provide a perfect vehicle for both the psychological drama inside Bianco’s head and his difficult adjustment to the “immense, unknown” landscape of the pampas, whose stark intensity challenges his core belief that “thought governs matter.” Readers will be grateful for this rediscovered gem. (Sept.)