The novices of Lerna

Argentinian writer Bonomini (1929--1994) makes a noteworthy English-language debut with this entrancing collection. After Ramón Beltra, the Argentine narrator of the title novella, accepts an enigmatic invitation to an illustrious fellowship in the Swiss mountain town of Lerna, he travels abroad for the first time ("Visiting Europe is something that every Argentine keeps in reserve as an unquestionable inheritance; to visit is almost a disappointment"), only to discover that every fellowship recipient looks identical to him. When some of these "novices," as they're called, fall ill from a mysterious epidemic, they begin to consider whether they are not there to study but to be studied. The narrator of "The Martyr" pines for his former lover who left her dog behind, and the story takes a dark turn as he considers what it might take to see her again. With "The C.C.C," Bonomini creates a world of parallel universes and replicas in the story of two aging cousins whose lives appear to be entirely unremarkable. Tricky but never gimmicky, this will appeal to admirers of Borges. (May)

These surreal stories reckon with identity, perception, and existence. Born in Buenos Aires in 1929, Bonomini--a contemporary of Adolfo Bioy Casares, Silvina Ocampo, and Jorge Luis Borges--has never been translated into English before. Much like his peers, Bonomini reckoned with both grand philosophical questions and the foibles of individual behavior. The title novella, which takes up much of this volume, focuses on an academic summoned to a strange institute of higher learning where all his fellow scholars--though hailing from different nations--look exactly alike. The men are given a series of rules that seem designed to further eradicate their individual identities, and by the time an epidemic begins thinning their ranks, it's not clear if it's an ironic coincidence or part of some plan. In the stories that follow, there's a similar ambiguity, sometimes elevated to a metafictional level. After "The Model" appears to end, the story's narrator chimes in to tell readers, "I have only been truthful about one thing." The identities of characters in "The Bengal Tiger," which opens with a series of potentially unrelated sentences about a woman and a tiger, blur as the story continues, eventually transforming the narrative into a dreamlike triangle in which a man, a woman, and a tiger alternate roles of love, death, and betrayal. In "Aromatic Herbs," the narrator moves the story in and out of dreams, including one that ends with his own death. These tales are often heady, abounding with unlikely revelations and sudden moments of violence. Their arrival in English, translated by Landsman, is a welcome development. A beguiling blend of the cerebral and the visceral. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.