A Father Is Born - by Andrés Neuman (Paperback)

About the Book

"A man awaits his son's birth. Captivated, he follows the mother's pregnancy, imagining the child that will transform his house, his language, his relationship, and his family history. For a year, he annotates the memorable first steps leading the three of them into these new existential situations: being a father, a mother, a son; three different characters in a universal story, told in newly born words. A situation further complicated when the child begins speaking and articulating his world. A Father Is Born is a lyrical tale that resonates both on intimate and collective levels. Its understanding of fatherhood faces masculinity with the miracle of life and its incessant rereading of the present. In a time that redefines traditionally attributed roles, A Father Is Born accepts Anne Waldman's invitation: "Tell the man to give up tumult for the while / To wonder at the sight of baby's beauty." But it is also, and above all, a love statement"--

Book Synopsis

The moving story of a man relearning his entire world and words, written by the winner of the Alfaguara Prize.

"It's not vertigo: it's a child."

A father, a mother, a child: three different characters in a universal story, told in newly born words. A minimalist chronicle of a simultaneous gestation, resonating both on intimate and collective levels, this book belongs to a rare genre of love literature: that which an astonished father writes for his son. Its pages explore the enigma of those essential learnings that we will never remember: arriving to the world, starting to walk, to speak, to form our identity and organize our memory. Its luminous voice pays tribute to early childhood and to language itself.

A Father is Born begins by delving deep into the pre-natal experience--traditionally foreign to men--from the wonderstruck perspective of a father who reflects on his own gendered education. Continuing with the newborn's arrival and the discoveries prompted by caring for, observing, and getting to know him, our narrator then recounts the period when words make their powerful appearance and the child begins speaking. This moving story deals with the relationship between a man and his infant son, both before and after the burst of verbal language, revealing the mysterious link between grammar and emotions.

In a time that redines tradionally attributed roles, A Father is Born accepts the poet Anne Waldman's invitation: "Tell the man to give up tumult for the while / to wonder at the sight of baby's beauty." In a radically synthetic style, striking a delicate balance between narrative and poetic prose, Andrés Neuman offers us his most intimate work.

Review Quotes

"A Father is Born shines, not only as a love letter to [Neuman's] child and his voice, but a lesson in how to celebrate the fictions that bond us to one another." --Asymptote

"It is impossible to classify Andrés Neuman: each of his books is a new language adventure, guided by the intelligence and the pleasure of words. He never ceases to surprise us and is, doubtlessly, one of the most daring writers in Latin American literature, willing to change, challenge and explore, always with a unique elegance." --Mariana Enriquez, author of Things We Lost in the Fire

"The literature of the twenty-first century will belong to Neuman and a few of his blood brothers." --Roberto Bolaño

"One of the things I love about Andrés Neuman's work is how he restores writing as the most powerful source of knowledge. Fracture, this dazzling and devastating novel, is a terric demonstration of that." --Alejandro Zambra, author of Ways of Going Home

"Traversing languages and cultures, decades and generations, Fracture unites its many fragments to form a powerful and redemptive vision of a single, and unbroken, human life. A searching, humane, and vital novel." ―Eleanor Catton, author of The Luminaries

About the Author

Andrés Neuman (1977) was selected as one of Granta's "Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists" and was included on the Bogotá-39 list. He is the author of numerous novels, short stories, poems, aphorisms, and travel books, including Traveler of the Century, Talking to Ourselves, The Things We Don't Do, and Fracture. His works have been translated into twenty-two languages.

Robin Myers is a poet, translator, essayist, and 2023 NEA Translation Fellow. Her latest translations include Last Date in El Zapotal by Mateo García Elizondo (Charco Press), A Strange Adventure by Eva Forest (Sternberg Press), What Comes Back by Javier Peñalosa M. (Copper Canyon Press); The Brush by Eliana Hernández-Pachón (Archipelago Books); and Bariloche (Open Letter Books) and Love Training (Deep Vellum Publishing), both by Andrés Neuman.