Novel
The Truce: The Diary of Martín Santomé
La tregua
Mario Benedetti · 1960
Synopsis
Martín Santomé, an office worker in Montevideo, a widower close to retirement, keeps a diary, with entries dated day after day. His three adult children, Esteban, Jaime and Blanca, have become distant to him, and the office hours repeat themselves. A young employee, Laura Avellaneda, whom he calls only by her surname, joins his department; little by little, the affection he feels for her outweighs his mourning for his wife, Isabel, and gives him back a hope he thought lost.
Context
The novel was published in 1960 and takes the form of the diary kept by its narrator. It was adapted for the screen in 1974 by the Argentine director Sergio Renán, and the film was the first Argentine film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. A French translation by Annie Morvan was published by Belfond in 1982, often reissued; an English translation by Harry Morales was published by Penguin in 2015.
Who it is for
A short novel in Spanish, written in the form of a diary, easy to approach; translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
The best known of its author's novels, translated into nineteen languages, and one of those that established his reputation.
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