Desubicados

"That was the first time I thought about leaving Buenos Aires, about going back to the South, about going to live in what people call 'a quiet place.' a set phrase, a proto-wish, an amulet to hold on to in the middle of a party, a meal, a presentation or one of those other urban rites that put me on the brink of the abyss, to later throw it out, forget it on the terrified way back my house, my bed. This should be the last". The narrator of this happily unusual novel surrenders to her musings on a bench at the zoo in the city where she lives, one of the loudest in the world, and there, "like one more bug", she feels a strong identification with the animals by virtue of something that one and others share: the absent home. This is how this book, obliquely and even hilariously, manages to wonder about the conditions of existence of all species. Disturbing and sharply ironic, Desubicados is an outstanding example of the work of one of the most unique contemporary writers.