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At the age of 22 he published his first novel, Bariloche (Anagrama, 1999, pocket edition, 2008), First Finalist in the prestigious Herralde Prize and selected among the top ten of the year by the literary supplement of El Mundo. His following novels were La vida en las ventanas (Life in the Windows, Espasa, 2002) and the family autofiction Una vez Argentina (Once Argentina, Anagrama, 2003, again First Finalist in the Herralde Prize). His fourth novel, El viajero del siglo (Traveller of the Century, Alfaguara, 2009), won the Alfaguara Prize and the National Critics Prize, awarded by the Spanish Literary Critics Association. It was selected by the critics of El País and El Mundo among the 5 best novels of the year in Spanish language, and was distinguished among the books of the year by the main Dutch newspapers, NRC Handelsblad and De Volkskrant. This novel was later shortlisted for the Rómulo Gallegos Prize, given to the best Spanish language novel published during the two previous years. Translated into 10 languages, it is currently being published in Great Britain (Pushkin Press) and United States (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), as well as in France, Italy, Brazil, China, Netherlands, Poland, Egypt, Portugal and Slovenia.
He has also published the books of short stories El que espera (He Who Waits, Anagrama, 2000), El último minuto (The Last Minute, Espasa, 2001, new edition by Páginas de Espuma, 2007), Alumbramiento (Birth, Páginas de Espuma, 2006) and Hacerse el muerto (Play Dead, Páginas de Espuma, 2011). The volume El fin de la lectura (The End of Reading, Estruendomudo, Lima; and Cuneta, Santiago de Chile, 2011) is a selection of his short narrative work. Some of his stories can be read in English on this site, and on international magazines like Words Without Borders, The Drawbridge or Granta. His collections of short stories include theoretical appendices concerning this genre, and he co-ordinated the project Pequeñas Resistencias (Small Resistances), a five volume-anthology of short stories written all over the Spanish-speaking world (Páginas de Espuma, 2002-2010). It is also worth pointing out his prologue to Uruguayan short-story writer Horacio Quiroga’s Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte (Stories of Love Madness and Death, Menoscuarto, 2004).
As a poet, he has published the following books: Métodos de la noche (Methods of the Night, Hiperión, 1998), El jugador de billar (The Pool Player, Pre-Textos, 2000), El tobogán (The Toboggan, Hiperión, 2002, Hiperión Prize), La canción del antílope (The Antelope’s Song, Pre-Textos, 2003) and Mística abajo (Down Mystic, Acantilado, 2008); as well as the collection of haikus Gotas negras (Black Drops, Plurabelle, 2003, new edition by Berenice, 2007) and the collection of sonnets Sonetos del extraño (Estranger’s Sonnets, Cuadernos del Vigía, 2007). All these books have been gathered, on a corrected version, in the volume Década. Poesía 1997-2007 (Decade. Poetry 1997-2007, Acantilado, 2008). The book-disc Alguien al otro lado (Someone on the other side, Comares, 2011) presents a brief anthology of his poems, set to music and sung by Juan Trova. His most recent poetry works are Patio de locos (Courtyard of Mad, Estruendomudo, Lima; Textofilia, Mexico DF, 2011) and No sé por qué (I don't know why, Ediciones del Dock, Buenos Aires, 2011). Some of his poems can be read in English on this site and on poetry publications like Poetry Wales.
He is also author of a book of aphorisms and literary essays, El equilibrista (The tightrope walker, Acantilado, 2005), a travel book about Latin America, Cómo viajar sin ver (How to travel without seeing, Alfaguara, 2010), and has translated to Spanish Die Winterreise, the Wilhelm Müller’s poems which were put into music by Franz Schubert (Viaje de invierno-Winter Travel, Acantilado, 2003).
His books have received among others the following commentaries:
«Neuman has a gift. No good reader will fail to perceive in its pages something that can only be found in literature of the highest rank, the kind written by true poets who dare to penetrate into the darkness with their eyes open, and who keep them open no matter what. When I encounter these young writers it makes me want to cry. The literature of the 21st century will belong to Neuman and to a handful of his blood brothers.»
(Roberto Bolaño, Between Parentheses)
«A masterful lesson in a narrative that is committed to the world’s suffering and to artistic control. He combines his sense of the narration with a taste for moving, penetrating lyricism.»
(J. Ernesto Ayala-Dip, El País, Spain)
«Brilliant and unshackled. A highly intelligent writer who is in control of a precise, sparkling language. Neuman confronts the literary work with his own momentum and with powerful, personal energy.»
(Miguel García-Posada, Abc, Spain)
«Beautiful and vibrating, full of poetry and tenderness. A complete success.»
(Ángel Basanta, El Cultural, Spain)
«We are face to face with a true writer, the sort that can become addictive.»
(Nuria Martínez Deaño, La Razón, Spain)
«Unusual maturity. The result is dazzling. There is a writer here; one of the great.»
(Andrés Magro, Diario 16, Spain)
«He is sure to become a key figure. He is simultaneously part of the Argentine and Spanish traditions, and is destined to give rise to a unique career, a sort of literary island.»
(Vicente Luis Mora, Diario Córdoba, Spain)
«Andrés Neuman is becoming the exceptional witness of a whole generation and an epoch.»
(Pedro M. Domene, Ideal, Spain)
«He shows his tireless ambition each time he faces a new book. That is the truly remarkable fact: a work of great maturity, in spite of his youth; his learning of the Spanish classical tradition and, at the same time, of the audacity of the Argentinian literature; and his constant interest in proposing something new.»
(Eva Díaz Pérez, El Mundo, Spain)
«He brings to mind the splendour of the great masters: dazzling acrobatics galvanised by a perfect, vertiginous mechanism.»
(Raúl Brasca, La Nación, Argentina)
«Fun, intelligent, nifty, very clever. An exquisite prose combined with the sensibility of a writer who likes to shake every certainty or stereotype.»
(Susana Rosano, Clarín, Argentina)
«If someone represents something like the horizon of hispanic letters, that one is Neuman.»
(T. Pinto, The Clinic, Chile)
«Both his poetical and narrative work have the lucidity, concision and capacity to open up to new possible worlds, without renouncing the daily nature. He is without question one of the most outstanding writers of his generation.»
(Francisco Véjar, Carajo Magazine, Chile)
«A wise writer who works with equal mastery the short story, the novel, the aphorism, the micro-essay.»
(Mario Bellatin, Damas chinas Magazine, México)
«Andrés Neuman proved his competence (or his talent, if you prefer it) from the first novel. His narrative work impressed me because of the knowledge that a writer who was almost still in nappies showed about subjects that are normally far from youth.»
(Joca Reiners Terron, La Folha de Sao Paulo, Brazil)
«A talent of a master of narrative art.»
(José Riço Direitinho, Diario Público, Portugal)
«This young Argentinian confirms himself as one of the greatest authors in Spanish language nowadays»
(João Morales, Os Meus Livros, Portugal)
«Confirms the talent of a writer designated as one of the greatest promises of Spanish language literature. Neuman shows that an important novel envolves something more than knowing how to tell an attractive story.»
(Ger Groot, NRC Handelsblad, Netherlands)
«At last Latin American literature has got its long-awaited European novel, with the same ambition, erudition and vitality as novels like One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Green House. Neuman is not only brilliant news for Latin American, but European literature as well.»
(Maarten Steenmeijer, De Volkskrant, Netherlands)
«I can only imagine how many articles would be written about an American author who’s done as much, and received as many awards at such a young age as Neuman has.»
(Chad Post, Three Percent, USA)
«Only at his 33, Neuman multiplies the literary language and walks to become a classic».
(Daria Galateria, La Repubblica, Italy)