The Planets - Sergio Chejfec

The Planets

By: Sergio Chejfec, Heather Cleary (Translator)

Paperback | 14 June 2012

At a Glance

Paperback


$31.95

or 4 interest-free payments of $7.99 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 15 to 25 business days

A 2013 Best Translated Book Award Finalist

When he reads about a mysterious explosion in the distant countryside, the narrator's thoughts turn to his disappeared childhood friend, M, who was abducted from his home years ago, during a spasm of political violence in Buenos Aires in the early 1970s. He convinces himself that M must have died in this explosion, and he begins to tell the story of their friendship through a series interconnected vignettes, hoping in this way to reanimate his friend and relive the time they spent together wandering the streets of Buenos Aires.

Sergio Chejfec's The Planets is an affecting and innovative exploration of mourning, remembrance, and friendship by one of Argentina's modern masters.

Sergio Chejfec, originally from Argentina, has published numerous works of fiction, poetry, and essays. Among his grants and prizes, he has received fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in 2007 and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 2000. He teaches at NYU.

Heather Cleary is a translator of fiction, criticism, and poetry. In 2005, she was awarded a Translation Fund grant from the PEN American Center for her work on Oliverio Girondo.

Industry Reviews
"A novel that is both unique and opportune."?Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill "Chejfec's words wander through all manner of tangential topics, and while the story seems, on the surface, as haphazardly constructed as a collection of memories should and would be, there is no doubt about the meticulousness behind the text. Heather Cleary's translation walks this tightrope perfectly, displaying with an uncanny grace both the chaos and the order that make up the core of the book."?Full Stop "To read The Planets is not so much to implant oneself within its narrated world as it is to discover oneself in this world's orbit. Whereas in Chejfec's English-language debut, My Two Worlds, the reader is invited into not merely the narrator's world but his very perception of it, The Planets is distinguished by the ambivalence of its intimacy?the holding of its reader at arm's length, in an abeyant proximity."?The Quarterly Conversation "The Planets is a reflective book about friendship and loss that should be read slowly. For even if M's city is not ours, grief is a landscape we all come to know."?Foreward Reviews "Borgesian in its poetic beauty, Chejfec writes with lyrical grace and astuteness."?Newcity Lit

More in Modern & Contemporary Fiction

We All Live Here - Jojo Moyes

RRP $34.99

$17.95

49%
OFF
The Dark Mirror : The Bone Season - Samantha Shannon

RRP $32.99

$21.50

35%
OFF
The Mix-up - Kylie Ladd

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$31.75

The Wolf Tree - Laura McCluskey

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$20.95

40%
OFF
Haunting Adeline : Cat and Mouse Duet - H. D. Carlton

RRP $34.99

$33.25

You Must Remember This - Sean Wilson

RRP $24.99

$23.75

Nesting - Roisin O'Donnell

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$22.95

34%
OFF
The Sirens - Emilia Hart

Paperback

RRP $32.99

$17.95

46%
OFF
Out of the Woods - Hannah Bonam-Young

RRP $22.99

$21.75

The Bad Bridesmaid - Rachael Johns

SIGNED COPY

RRP $34.99

$17.95

49%
OFF
Cold Truth - Ashley Kalagian Blunt

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$17.95

49%
OFF
Persuader : (Jack Reacher 7) - Lee Child

RRP $22.99

$14.95

35%
OFF
Out on a Limb - Hannah Bonam-Young

Paperback

RRP $22.99

$21.90

The Baby Dragon Cafe : The Baby Dragon series - A.T. Qureshi

RRP $22.99

$14.95

35%
OFF
Three Days in June - Anne Tyler

RRP $32.99

$19.95

40%
OFF
The Seventh Floor - David McCloskey

$32.99

We Do Not Part - Han Kang

RRP $35.00

$31.75

The Last Days of Kira Mullan - Nicci French

RRP $34.99

$17.95

49%
OFF
The Grapevine - Kate Kemp

Paperback

RRP $32.99

$22.95

30%
OFF
My Favourite Mistake - Marian Keyes

RRP $22.99

$21.90