Neuman is een auteur die zich diepgaand bezighoudt met thema's als herinnering, identiteit en ballingschap, waarbij hij vaak put uit zijn persoonlijke geschiedenis en Europese wortels. Zijn proza, die volgde op vroege poëziebundels, is geprezen om zijn literaire diepgang en kracht. Critici hebben hem geprezen als een van de belangrijkste hedendaagse Spaanstalige schrijvers, met een unieke stem die wereldwijd resoneert bij lezers. Neuman promoot en analyseert ook actief de kortverhaalvorm, waarmee hij zijn plaats in het literaire landschap verstevigt.
Exploring the complexities of love and familial bonds, this narrative unfolds through the perspectives of three characters on a transformative journey. Set against a backdrop of rich emotional landscapes, it delves into two intertwining love stories that reveal the intricacies of relationships and the impact of a single trip on their lives. With a distinctive voice that captures the essence of Latin American storytelling, the book promises a profound exploration of connection and identity.
Searching for an inn, the enigmatic traveler Hans stops in a small city on the border between Saxony and Prussia. The next morning, Hans meets an old organ-grinder in the market square and immediately finds himself enmeshed in an intense debate—on identity and what it is that defines us—from which he cannot break free. Indefinitely stuck in Wandernburg until his debate with the organ-grinder is concluded, he begins to meet the various characters who populate the town, including a young freethinker named Sophie. Though she is engaged to be married, Sophie and Hans begin a relationship that defies contemporary mores about female sexuality and what can and cannot be said about it.
A kaleidoscopic, fast-paced tour of Latin America from one of the Spanish-speaking world’s most outstanding writers. Lamenting not having more time to get to know each of the nineteen countries he visits after winning the prestigious Premio Alfaguara, Andrés Neuman begins to suspect that world travel consists mostly of “not seeing.” But then he realizes that the fleeting nature of his trip provides him with a unique opportunity: touring and comparing every country of Latin America in a single stroke. Neuman writes on the move, generating a kinetic work that is at once puckish and poetic, aphoristic and brimming with curiosity. Even so-called non-places—airports, hotels, taxis—are turned into powerful symbols full of meaning. A dual Argentine-Spanish citizen, he incisively explores cultural identity and nationality, immigration and globalization, history and language, and turbulent current events. Above all, Neuman investigates the artistic lifeblood of Latin America, tackling with gusto not only literary heavyweights such as Bolaño, Vargas Llosa, Lorca, and Galeano, but also an emerging generation of authors and filmmakers whose impact is now making ripples worldwide. Eye-opening and charmingly offbeat, How to Travel without Seeing: Dispatches from the New Latin America is essential reading for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of the Americas.
