The Regal Lemon Tree - by Juan José Saer (Paperback)

About the Book

A haunting novel of grief from one of Argentina's greatest modernist writers.

Book Synopsis

One of the late Juan José Saer's most beloved novels, The Regal Lemon Tree shows a master stylist at his best. Set during day and night of New Year's Eve--building up a barbecue that takes on ritual significance--the novel focuses on a couple in the north of Argentina who lost their only son eight years prior. Wenceslao spends the day with his extended family and his memories while his wife--truly paralyzed by grief--refuses to leave their island, which is home to an almost magical lemon tree that blossoms at all times of the year. With the recurring phrase, "dawn breaks, and his eyes are already open," the novel takes on a dreamlike quality, manifesting the troubles the couple has suffered under with an eeriness that calls to mind the work of David Lynch.

Review Quotes

"A cerebral explorer of the problems of narrative in the wake of Joyce and Woolf, of Borges, of Rulfo and Arlt, Saer is also a stunning poet of place."--The Nation

"Juan José Saer must be added to the list of the best South American writers."--Le Monde

"To say that Juan José Saer is the best Argentinian writer of today is to undervalue his work. It would be better to say that Saer is one of the best writers of today in any language."--Ricardo Piglia

"The most striking element of Saer's writing is his prose, at once dynamic and poetic. . . . It is brilliant."--Harvard Review

"Brilliant. . . . Saer's The Sixty-Five Years of Washington captures the wildness of human experience in all its variety."--New York Times

"What Saer presents marvelously is the experience of reality, and the characters' attempts to write their own narratives within its excess."--Bookforum

About the Author

Juan José Saer was the leading Argentinian writer of the post-Borges generation. The author of numerous novels and short-story collections (including Scars and La Grande), Saer was awarded Spain's prestigious Nadal Prize in 1987 for The Event. Six of his novels are available from Open Letter Books.

Sergio Waisman has translated sever books of Latin American literature, including The Absent City by Ricardo Piglia, for which he received an NEA Translation Fellowship Award in 2000. His first novel, Leaving, was published in the U.S. in 2004 and in 2010 as Irse in Argentina. His latest translations are Target in the Night by Piglia, The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela, and An Anthology of Spanish-American Modernismo.