Sobre héroes y tumbas

Ernesto Sabato's 1961 novel centers on Martín, a lonely and troubled young man in Buenos Aires, and his relationship with Alejandra Vidal Olmos, a young woman from an old aristocratic family who is haunted by her past. The book reaches into Argentine history, including the civil wars of the nineteenth century, and includes an extended section called Report on the Blind, in which Alejandra's father Fernando descends into paranoia. Sabato mixes love story, political reflection and metaphysical nightmare.

Readers of major Latin American novels of the twentieth century will find a long, difficult and intense work. It rewards those who want fiction about obsession, identity and the Argentine national character.

Deep, inward-looking, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

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