My Two Worlds - by Sergio Chejfec (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Approaching his fiftieth birthday, the narrator in My Two Worlds is wandering in an unfamiliar Brazilian city, in search of a park. A walker by inclination and habit, he has decided to explore the city after attending a literary conference--he was invited following the publication of his most recent novel, although, as he has been informed via anonymous e-mail, the novel is not receiving good reviews. Initially thwarted by his inability to transpose the two-dimensional information of the map onto the impassable roads and dead-ends of the three-dimensional city, once he finds the park the narrator begins to see his own thoughts, reflections, and memories mirrored in the landscape of the park and its inhabitants.

Chejfec's My Two Worlds, an extraordinary meditation on experience, writing, and space, is at once descriptively inventive and preternaturally familiar, a novel that challenges the limitations of the genre.

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.

Margaret Carson translates contemporary poetry, fiction, and drama from Latin America. She also teaches in the Modern Languages Department at Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Review Quotes

"Lean, thoughtful, and keenly observed, the Argentinean Chejfec's first work translated into English packs a great deal of insight into 102 pages ... Carson's magnificent translation of Chejfec's latest work should be treated as a significant event."--Publishers Weekly

"Without a doubt, Chejfec deserves greater recognition. My Two Worlds paves the way for the novel of the future."--Enrique Vila-Matas

"Do you know that moment when you think someone calls out to you, but it's not you they're really looking for? My Two Worlds is the novel version of that instant: Something is happening, but I'm not sure what it is. Chejfec pulls off a sense of metaphysical confusion that, turns out, is a master plan of the literary process--a collision of the two worlds of thought and writing. My Two Worlds is a strange, unique little book that is overwhelmingly a delight to read."--The Literary Review

"Combining the documentary insight of W.G. Sebald with the fanciful flights of Italo Calvino, the book allows us to enter the thoughts of a restless intellectual whose streams of thought involve the reader in his quest to find meaning in everything he sees and does. A short but penetrating novel about coexisting in the material world and the world of thought."--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

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.

Margaret Carson translates contemporary poetry, fiction, and drama from Latin America. She also teaches in the Modern Languages Department at Borough of Manhattan Community College.