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*Shortlisted for the 2013 Independent
Foreign Fiction Prize*
A novel of
philosophy and love, politics and waltzes, history and
the here-and-now, Andrés Neuman's Traveller of the
Century is a journey into the soul of Europe,
penned by one of the most exciting South-American
writers of our time.
A traveller stops off
for the night in the mysterious city of Wandernburg. He
intends to leave the following day, but the city begins
to ensnare him with its strange, shifting
geography.
When Hans befriends an old organ grinder,
and falls in love with Sophie, the daughter of a local
merchant, he finds it impossible to leave. Through a
series of memorable encounters with starkly different
characters, Neuman takes the reader on a hypothetical
journey back into post-Napoleonic Europe, subtly evoking
its parallels with our modern era.
At the heart of
the novel lies the love story between Sophie and Hans.
They are both translators, and between dictionaries and
bed, bed and dictionaries, they gradually build up their
own fragile common language. Through their relationship,
Neuman explores the idea that all love is an act of
translation, and that all translation is an act of
love.
'A beautiful, accomplished novel: as ambitious
as it is generous, as moving as it is smart'
Juan
Gabriel Vásquez, Guardian
Andrés
Neuman (b.1977) was born in Buenos Aires and
later moved to Granada, Spain. Selected as one of Granta
magazine's Best Young Spanish-Language Novelists, Neuman
was included in the Hay Festival's Bogotá 39 list. He
has published numerous novels, short stories, essays and
poetry collections. He received the Hiperión Prize for
Poetry for El tobogán, and Traveller of the
Century won the Alfaguara Prize and the National
Critics Prize in 2009.
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