Novel
Eloy
Not translated into English
Carlos Droguett · 1960
Synopsis
The last hours of Eloy, a Chilean bandit surrounded by eleven policemen who have come to kill him. Taking refuge in a hut from which he drives out an old man and a young woman, he thinks of Rosa, his companion, and of their son Toño, whose lungs are fragile, relives prison and a flight to Argentina, and makes plans for things to buy for the child, according to The Modern Novel. The narrative shifts from the first to the second and third person and jumps from past to future; Yerko Moretić sees in it an interior monologue crossed by recent memories, desires and hatred.
Context
The novel appeared in Barcelona from Seix Barral in 1960. It draws on a real bandit, killed by the police in 1941 according to The Modern Novel, in 1947 according to Yerko Moretić, who praised the introspection but reproached the book for leaving its hero without an origin and judged it contrived towards the end. Quickly translated, into Portuguese, Italian, Dutch and then German, it appeared in French in 1977 from François Maspero, translated by Fanchita Gonzalez-Batlle; there is no English edition.
Who it is for
A short novel, entirely inside the head of a hunted man, demanding to read; translated into French.
Prizes and reception
His author's most translated novel, published in Spain and then in half a dozen European languages.
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