“The Invention of Morel,” the novel by Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares, is a masterpiece of fantasy literature that combines mystery, romance, and adventure in a subject that is as shocking as it is fascinating. Amid an enigmatic atmosphere, where reality mixes with illusion and love challenges the limits of the impossible, the work was considered by Jorge Luis Borges as the perfect novel, transforming Casares into one of the founding voices of the 20th-century Hispanic-American literary “boom.”
A fugitive learns the location of an island in the middle of the ocean, where it is said that a deadly disease awaits all guests. On the island, the fugitive is a secret witness to the interactions and entertainment of a group of high-ranking people. From the shadows, he falls in love with one of the women who roam the island. But something does not add up: his attempts to communicate with this woman regularly fail; every scene that has happened once is repeated; there is not one sun in the sky, but two, and the heat is double.
These are the ingredients of a work that Borges calls “unprecedented” in Hispanic-American literature – the perfect novel, according to him. “The Invention of Morel”, at once a romance, a fantasy novel, a thriller and a horror, with a subject woven with rare skill, became one of the cornerstones of the Hispanic-American literary “boom” in the second half of the 20th century.
A little about the author: Adolfo Bioy Casares (1914-1999) was one of the most productive and influential figures in the Argentine literary world and beyond. Born into the upper bourgeoisie of Buenos Aires, he had the opportunity to devote himself to literature throughout his life. He wrote short and long prose, critical articles, translated and edited a number of important anthologies. He was one of Jorge Luis Borges' closest friends and collaborators, with whom he wrote a number of works under different pseudonyms.
"The Invention of Morel" comes in Albanian from the publishing house Pika pa Siperface with translation by Erion Karabolli.
