Description

1975. The cusp of Argentina’s Dirty War. The magnate, Fausto Tamerlan, has been kidnapped by guerrillas, who as part of their ransom demands have stipulated the placement of a bust of Eva Peron in all ninety-two offices of Argentina’s leading construction company, Tamerlan & Sons. Tamerlan’s head of procurement, Ernesto Marrone, is the man tasked with the job, but he soon finds out that his is a mission for executives of a heroic disposition. His subsequent picaresque journey plunges him into a world of occupied factories, the slums of Buenos Aires and the utopian Evita City. Equipped with his trusty copy of Don Quixote: The Executive-Errant, Marrone is a modern knight who finds himself forced to penetrate the ultimate Argentinian mystery: Eva Peron – that maid of myth and legend whom we know as Evita. A stand-alone novel in its own right but also a prequel to his first novel, The Islands (And Other Stories, 2012), Carlos Gamerro’s caustic and utterly original novel is a shattered window onto Argentina’s recent past.

Publisher Review

Praise for The Adventure of the Busts of Eva Peron: 'Some may feel that the armed militancy of the 1970s shouldn't be the subject of knockabout comedy; others, that Eva Peron shouldn't be a target for satire. But in its disection of operative myths and its demystification, The Adventure of the Busts of Eva Peron proposes an effective literary language for the purpose.' Soledad Quereilhac, La Nacion ------- 'The more we laugh at the tragicomic hero Ernesto Marrone, this child of rigorous capitalism turned Montonero revolutionary, the more we empathise with Gamerro, the father of this child who is convinced he can apply the sermons of self-help manuals to breathe new life into the Revolution.' Silvina Friera, Pagina ------- Praise for The Islands: 'Carlos Gamerro has written one of the most ambitious novels about the war." Jonathan Blitzer, The Nation ------- 'The reader is dragged headlong by Barnett's athletic translation - a highly addictive comic voice, its peaks of hectic farce underlaid by a delicate, deadpan absurdism.' Times Literary Supplement ------- 'A weird and wonderful thriller - rife with surreal horror and rampant bad taste.' The Observer ------- 'Exhilarating, inventive and consistently absorbing.' The Guardian -------