A Zero-Sum Game - by Eduardo Rabasa (Paperback)

About the Book

Debut from Mexico20-nominated author examines humanity's dark side in fatalistic satire of consumer society and the cult of the individual.

Book Synopsis

"Outstanding political fantasy. Eduardo Rabasa has written a futuristic novel set in the present; its inventiveness is not based on new technologies but rather on new kinds of relationships." -- Juan Villoro

A hilarious satire and universal exploration of the origins of power and corruption. A Zero-Sum Game uses the highly-charged election for the presidency of a residents' committee and the influence of a powerful stranger to both expose those in power and to sympathize with individuals who find themselves caught in the paradox of empowerment and impotence that is modern consumer society and the democratic state.

Eduardo Rabasa is the founding editorial director of Sexto Piso, Mexico's most prominent independent publishing house, and was selected to the Hay Festival's Méeacute;xico20 list of the greatest Mexican authors under the age of forty.

Review Quotes

"A Zero-Sum Game is not only a brilliant novel: it may well be THE brilliant novel of our time, a book that captures all of the delusion, deceit, and absurdity of a world given over entirely to the dictates of capitalism. Eduardo Rabasa has written a tragedy, to be sure, a twisted boundary-pushing tragedy that also happens to be insanely funny. If humans are reading novels a hundred years from now, they will be reading A Zero-Sum Game, and laughing and weeping in equal measure." - Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk"Rabasa uses various narrative devices to make a rambunctious journey through the layers of corruption and the various faces of power in a housing complex that could be anywhere." -- Jane Ciabattari, BBC Culture

"Rabasa's novel is built much like the sprawling housing complex it portrays: a complex but self-contained set of ideas populated by funny and frightening characters. Rabasa has crafted an Orwellian satire of low-level bureaucrats, urban dreamers, and political power." -- Publishers Weekly

"A tome that keeps you on your toes, dancing between various characters' perspectives, different styles of narration, and abstract political lecturing... Christina MacSweeney... preserves the complicated structure and alternating voices of the novel impressively." -- Madeline Jones, Asymptote Journal

"With echoes of 1984 and Brave New World, Rabasa delivers a forceful, hysterical debut that's one for the political ages. This timely novel riffs on challenges that are at the fore globally--drugs, poverty, and class division. A Zero Sum Game is a welcome addition to contemporary Mexican literature, with a voice and intellect that is astute and vibrant, providing much-needed commentary on Mexican-American relations and the abuses of capitalism." -- Monica Carter, Foreword Reviews

"Rabasa uses the charged atmosphere to crack dry, wry jokes that manage to lend sympathy to both sides: those in power, who find themselves caught between empowerment and selling out, and those outside of it, who find themselves wanting to be part of a revolution. It's complex, intense, and would be heavy were the book not so charmingly funny." -- Cassidy Foust, Literary Hub

"Sprawling, unwieldy, hilarious, and terrifying... Rabasa's book mercilessly scrutinizes and critiques modern consumerism and the democratic state." -- Rachel Cordasco, Bookriot

"An insightful political dystopia" -- Andrea Gregovich, Fiction Advocate

"Rich with the absurdity and excess of human folly, A Zero-Sum Game is a satire bursting with invention. Eduardo Rabasa displays the keen eye of a Huxley or a Vonnegut, mocking our obsession with progress, our endless consumerism and our desire for utopia. Villa Miserias could be a stand-in for any city in any country in the world. Hilarious and original, Rabasa's debut is pure joy and the introduction of an exciting new voice." -- Mark Haber, bookseller, Brazos Bookstore (Houston, Texas)

"The comparisons to 1984 are inevitable . . . However, A Zero-Sum Game is closer to A Brave New World than to Orwellian dystopia." -- Victor Parkas, El Paíiacute;s

"Meticulous, written with harsh language, this is the portrait of a suffocating microcosm in which hierarchies are fixed by the illusion of a social progress that will never arrive. Rabasa dismantles with precision the mechanisms of a false democracy, in which no political alternative is possible (...) A mirror of some Latin American countries, this dense novel offers a pertinent reflection about the ways in which a regime can exercise violence today: less by outright repression and more through its capacit

"Rabasa uses various narrative devices to make a rambunctious journey through the layers of corruption and the various faces of power in a housing complex that could be anywhere." - Jane Ciabattari, BBC Culture

"Rabasa's novel is built much like the sprawling housing complex it portrays: a complex but self-contained set of ideas populated by funny and frightening characters. Rabasa has crafted an Orwellian satire of low-level bureaucrats, urban dreamers, and political power." - Publishers Weekly

"A tome that keeps you on your toes, dancing between various characters' perspectives, different styles of narration, and abstract political lecturing... Christina MacSweeney... preserves the complicated structure and alternating voices of the novel impressively." - Madeline Jones, Asymptote Journal

"With echoes of 1984 and Brave New World, Rabasa delivers a forceful, hysterical debut that's one for the political ages. This timely novel riffs on challenges that are at the fore globally-drugs, poverty, and class division. A Zero Sum Game is a welcome addition to contemporary Mexican literature, with a voice and intellect that is astute and vibrant, providing much-needed commentary on Mexican-American relations and the abuses of capitalism." - Monica Carter, Foreword Reviews

"Rabasa uses the charged atmosphere to crack dry, wry jokes that manage to lend sympathy to both sides: those in power, who find themselves caught between empowerment and selling out, and those outside of it, who find themselves wanting to be part of a revolution. It's complex, intense, and would be heavy were the book not so charmingly funny." - Cassidy Foust, Literary Hub

"Sprawling, unwieldy, hilarious, and terrifying... Rabasa's book mercilessly scrutinizes and critiques modern consumerism and the democratic state." - Rachel Cordasco, Bookriot

"An insightful political dystopia" - Andrea Gregovich, Fiction Advocate

"A critique like this on the potential pitfalls of democracy rings with an eerily relevant timbre." - Gabriel García Ochoa, Harvard Review

"Rich with the absurdity and excess of human folly, A Zero-Sum Game is a satire bursting with invention. Eduardo Rabasa displays the keen eye of a Huxley or a Vonnegut, mocking our obsession with progress, our endless consumerism and our desire for utopia. Villa Miserias could be a stand-in for any city in any country in the world. Hilarious and original, Rabasa's debut is pure joy and the introduction of an exciting new voice." - Mark Haber, bookseller, Brazos Bookstore (Houston, Texas)

"The comparisons to 1984 are inevitable . . . However, A Zero-Sum Game is closer to A Brave New World than to Orwellian dystopia." - Victor Parkas, El País

"A compelling mix of satirical humor and chilling realism." - Jen Rickard Blair, World Literature Today

"Meticulous, written with harsh language, this is the portrait of a suffocating microcosm in which hierarchies are fixed by the illusion of a social progress that will never arrive. Rabasa dismantles with precision the mechanisms of a false democracy, in which no political alternative is possible (...) A mirror of some Latin American countries, this dense novel offers a pertinent reflection about the ways in which a regime can exercise violence today: less by outright repression and more through its capacity of imposing a deadly lethargy on people." - Ariane Singer, Le Monde

"A Zero-Sum Game is an outstanding political fantasy. Eduardo Rabasa has written a futuristic novel set in the present; its inventiveness is not based o

About the Author

Eduardo Rabasa studied political science at Mexico's National University (UNAM), where he graduated with a thesis on the concept of power in the work of George Orwell. He writes a weekly column for the national newspaper Milenio, and has translated books of authors like Morris Berman, George Orwell and W. Somerset Maugham. In 2002 he co-founded Sexto Piso, recognized as one of Mexico's leading independent publishers, where he currently serves as editorial director. A Zero-Sum Game is his debut novel, published in Mexico by Surplus Ediciones (Sur+), in Spain by Pepitas de calabaza, in Argentina by Godot Ediciones, in France by Éditions Piranha, and in the US by Deep Vellum. In 2015, he was selected among the best 20 young Mexican contemporary authors in the Hay Festival's México20 project.

Christina MacSweeney is a literary translator specializing in Latin American fiction. Her translations of Valeria Luiselli's works were published by Granta and Coffee House Press in 2012 and 2013 and 2015 respectively; her translation of Luiselli's Faces in the Crowd was a finalist for the Best Translated Book Award in 2015, and The Story of My Teeth was a finalist for the same award in 2016, and won the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies México20, and Lunatics, Lovers and Poets: Twelve Stories after Cervantes and Shakespeare (And Other Stories, 2016). Her most recent published translation, Daniel Saldaña París's Among Strange Victims, was published by Coffee House Press in spring 2016, and a short story, "Piñata," by the same author was included in the 2016 National Translation Month publications.