The Absolute

The Absolute
Jessica Sequeira, Daniel Guebel
RRP:
NZ$ 41.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 33.59
Trade Paperback
h210 x 140mm - 336pg
21 Apr 2022 UK
International import eta 10-19 days
9781838415921
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
A 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. The Absolute 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 Spiritual Exercises 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. The Absolute 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. "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. " -La Naci n
"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. " -Cesar Aira "Guebel is a genius. He is the best novelist of his generation, my generation. The most solid of our great authors. " -Luis Chitarroni "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. " -Pablo Gianera, La Nacion "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. " -Carlos Fonseca, author of Natural History "The Absolute 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 Anatomy of Melancholy; his contemporaries, Norman Manea and W. G. Sebald. " -Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading
Daniel Guebel 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. The Absolute was chosen by La Naci n newspaper as its book of the year and The Emperor' s Pearl won the Emece Prize. His autobiographical book The Jewish Son also won the Buenos Aires Book Fair' s award for literary criticism. Guebel' s latest novel is A Japanese Crime. A lover of Japanese literature, he owns a sushi restaurant. Jessica Sequeira is a writer and literary translator. She is the author of the novel A Furious Oyster, the story collection Rhombus and Oval, the essay collection Other Paradises- Poetic Approaches to Thinking in a Technological Age and the hybrid work A Luminous History of the Palm. She has translated over twenty books by Latin American authors, and in 2019 was awarded the Premio Valle-Inclan for her translation of Sara Gallardo' s Land of Smoke. She lives in Santiago, Chile and Cambridge, England.
Status: No local stock, title imported to order
ISBN-13: 9781838415921
Published: 21 Apr 2022
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Seven Stories Press UK
Publisher: Seven Stories Press UK
Format: Trade Paperback
Height: 210mm
Width: 140mm
Pages: 336

In stock - for items in stock we aim to dispatch the next business day. For delivery in NZ allow 2-5 business days, with rural taking a wee bit longer.

Locally sourced in NZ - stock comes from a NZ supplier with an approximate delivery of 7-15 business days.

International Imports - stock is imported into NZ, depending on air or sea shipping option from the international supplier stock can take 10-30 working days to arrive into NZ. 

Pre-order Titles - delivery will vary depending on where the title is published, if local stock is available in NZ then 5-7 business days, for international imports it can be 10-30 business days. In all cases we will access the quickest supply option.

Delivery Packaging - we ship all items in cardboard sleeves or by box with either packing paper or corn starch chips. (We avoid using plastics bubble bags)

Tracking - Orders are delivered by track and trace courier and are fully insured, tracking information will be sent by email once dispatched.

View our full Order & Delivery information