{"product_id":"the-absolute-isbn-9781644211601","title":"The Absolute","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner....\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePremio Municipal de la Novela 2021\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePremio Nacional de Literatura Argentina 2018\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePremio Literario de la Academia Argentina de Letras 2017\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBest Novel Award by La Nación 2016\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eA provocative multigenerational exploration of creative genius, madness, and family relationships. With the ambition and density of style of Vladimir Nabokov or Olga Tokarczuk, this is a story both profound and handled with a light touch.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Absolute\u003c\/i\u003e is a sprawling historical novel about the Deliuskin-Scriabin family, made up of six generations of geniuses and madmen. Beginning in the mid-18th century in Russia, across Europe and ending in late 20th-century Argentina, the characters’ lives play out in different branches of art, politics and science in such radical ways that they transform the world and its reality. The narrator’s ancestor, Frantisek Deliuskin, invents a new form of music in the 18th century; his son, Andrei Deliuskin, makes some marginal annotations to the \u003ci\u003eSpiritual Exercises\u003c\/i\u003e of Saint Ignatius of Loyola that are later interpreted by Lenin as an instruction manual to carry out the Russian Revolution of 1917; Esau Deliuskin, following the course of his father, creates a socialist utopian society; and down through the generations to the narrator, whose creation takes him back in time and space to the moment of the Big Bang.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Absolute\u003c\/i\u003e is a monumental work about the creation of art and about family, about spiritual traditions and about throwing oneself into the world not to capture life but to create it, in and through words.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“This is a masterpiece at a time when masterpieces seem impossible and at the same time challenges the very idea of a masterpiece. … It’s the novel one should read if they want to know what an artist is.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLa Nación\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"A quixotic enterprise concerned with a quixotic enterprise founded on a desire to understand and memorialize a succession of quixotic enterprises.\"—\u003cb\u003eLeo Robson, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Guebel’s prose throughout, in the able hands of his gifted translator Jessica Sequeira, adds to the many pleasures of this wholly original text. Guebel’s great novel is a timely reminder of why our translators are our best travel writers, bringing us on excursions and to places that we can only ever read about.\"\u003cb\u003e—Michael Cronin, \u003ci\u003eThe Irish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Argentine writer Guebel’s exceptional English-language debut serves up the multigenerational tale of the historical Deliuskin-Scriabin family, a motley bunch of artists, scientists, and politicians. Guebel begins with the story of composer Frantisek Deliuskin, who, in 18th-century Russia, finds inspiration in sex (“It’s like living in a heaven that flows with scents and skins and moans,” he writes in a journal). Then there’s Frantisek’s son, Andrei, orphaned as a child, whose annotations of St. Ignatius Loyola’s work are used by Lenin to organize 1917’s Russian Revolution. Esau Deliuskin, Andrei’s son, leads a Robin Hood–style gang, escapes from prison after being convicted for an assassination attempt on Archduke Franz Ferdinand, then leads a failed socialist settlement. Esau’s son, Alexander Scriabin, who is lost in a crowd at age three from his mother and twin, Sebastian, before the others embark for Buenos Aires, is raised for a time by Russian soldiers and later employed by a controversial writer and mystic. Later, he becomes a famous pianist with an unfinished masterpiece. Sebastian Deliuskin, who grows up in Argentina and also becomes a pianist, has a daughter who narrates the book. As the characters experience love, jealousy, and despair, \u003cb\u003eGuebel offers erudite meditations on music, art, and philosophy, all marked by a superb use of language. This is best savored slowly\u003c\/b\u003e.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Intellectually adventurous, multigenerational novel of a family’s quest to find meaning in the world. . . . A Borges-ian masterwork that neatly blends magic realism, mysticism, and off-color yarns into a superb whole.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“There is a Guebelian style, and it's so rare for a writer to have a style (it's so rare for someone who writes to be a real writer) that one just has to accept it.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—César Aira\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Guebel is a genius. He is the best novelist of his generation, my generation. The most solid of our great authors.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Luis Chitarroni\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“His writing is a tour de force. This is a masterpiece at a time when masterpieces seem impossible and at the same time challenges the very idea of a masterpiece. This is the only novel I would have wanted to write. It’s the novel one should read if they want to know what an artist is.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Pablo Gianera, \u003ci\u003eLa Nación\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Guebel writes from that crystal frontier where creativity meets madness, where imagination meets delirium. His cast of eccentrics often reminds us of Borges’ characters, but of a Borges gone wild.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Carlos Fonseca, author of \u003ci\u003eNatural History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Absolute\u003c\/i\u003e is an extraordinary novel, an exploration of memory and music, of social history, science and family ties. Guebel's remote ancestor is Richard Burton and his \u003ci\u003eAnatomy of Melancholy\u003c\/i\u003e; his contemporaries, Norman Manea and W.G. Sebald.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Alberto Manguel, author of \u003ci\u003eA History of Reading\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eDaniel Guebel\u003c\/b\u003e has published over twenty-five books, including novels, short stories and plays. He won Argentina’s National Literature Prize as well as the Argentine Academy of Letters’ novel prize. \u003ci\u003eThe Absolute\u003c\/i\u003e was chosen by \u003ci\u003eLa Nación\u003c\/i\u003e newspaper as its book of the year and \u003ci\u003eThe Emperor’s Pearl\u003c\/i\u003e won the Emecé Prize. His autobiographical book \u003ci\u003eThe Jewish Son\u003c\/i\u003e also won the Buenos Aires Book Fair’s award for literary criticism. Guebel’s latest novel is \u003ci\u003eA Japanese Crime\u003c\/i\u003e. A lover of Japanese literature, he owns a sushi restaurant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJessica Sequeira\u003c\/b\u003e is a writer and literary translator. She is the author of the novel \u003ci\u003eA Furious Oyster\u003c\/i\u003e, the story collection \u003ci\u003eRhombus and Oval\u003c\/i\u003e, the essay collection \u003ci\u003eOther Paradises: Poetic Approaches to Thinking in a Technological Age\u003c\/i\u003e and the hybrid work \u003ci\u003eA Luminous History of the Palm\u003c\/i\u003e. She has translated over twenty books by Latin American authors, and in 2019 was awarded the Premio Valle-Inclán for her translation of Sara Gallardo’s \u003ci\u003eLand of Smoke\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Seven Stories Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303919538405,"sku":"NP9781644211601","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781644211601.jpg?v=1767737992","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-absolute-isbn-9781644211601","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}