Five by Aira

Reviews

"A lampoon of our need for narrative. No one today does metafiction like Aira." — Robyn Creswell, The Paris Review

"An Aesop in Breton's clothing." — Thomas Hachard, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Outlandish B-movie fantasies are all part of the game. His best-known works are nonsensically hysterical. To love César Aira you must have a taste for the absurd, a tolerance for the obscurely philosophical, and a willingness to laugh out loud against your better judgment." — Marcela Valdes, NPR Books

"Once you start reading Aira, you don't want to stop." — Roberto Bolaño

"I get so absorbed by an Aira novel that upon finishing I don’t remember anything. It’s like having a complex cinematic dream that dissipates upon awakening." — Patti Smith, The New York Times Book Review

"Sui generis is really the only way to accurately describe César Aira. He’s by turns a realist, a magical realist and a surrealist — and therefore not really any of them. Anything can happen in an Aira novel, and almost everything does." — Tyler Malone, Los Angeles Times

"To love the novels of César Aira you must have a taste for the absurd, a tolerance for the obscurely philosophical, and a willingness to laugh out loud against your better judgment." — Marcela Valdes, NPR

"Everything in Aira has that Mad Scientist feel to it." — Jacob Mikanowski, The Millions

"Astonishing—turns Don Quixote into Picasso." — Harper's

"Aira’s works are like slim cabinets of wonder, full of unlikely juxtapositions. His unpredictability is masterful." — Rivka Galchen

"He summons up a genie who can do everything but fulfill our wishes." — New York Review of Books