Simpatia

Simpatia is set in the Venezuela of Nicolas Maduro amid a mass exodus of the intellectual class who have been leaving their pets behind. Ulises Kan, the protagonist and a movie buff, receives a text message from his wife, Paulina, saying she is leaving the country (and him). Ulises is not heartbroken but liberated by Paulina''s departure. Two other events end up disrupting his life even further: the return of Nadine, an unrequited love from the past, and the death of his father-in-law, General Mart­n Ayala. Thanks to Ayala''s will, Ulises discovers that he has been entrusted with a mission - to transform Los Argonautas, the great family home, into a shelter for abandoned dogs. If he manages to do it in time, he will inherit the luxurious apartment that he had shared with Paulina. This novel centers on themes of family and orphanhood in order to address the abuse of power by a patrilineage of political figures in Latin America, from Simon Bolivar to Hugo Chavez. The untranslatable title, Simpatia, which means both sympathy and charm, ironically references the qualities these political figures share. In a morally bankrupt society, where all human ties seem to have dissolved, Ulises is like a stray dog picking up scraps of sympathy. Can you really know who you love? What is, in essence, a family? Are abandoned dogs proof of the existence or non-existence of God? Ulises unknowingly embodies these questions, as a pilgrim of affection in a post-love era.

Product details

• Authors: Rodrigo Blanco Calderon, Rodrigo Blanco Calderón
• Assisted by: Daniel Hahn (Translation), Hahn Daniel (Translation), Noel Hernandez Gonzalez (Translation)
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.03.2024
• EAN: 9781911710073
• ISBN: 978-1-911710-07-3
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 157 mm x 15 mm x 212 mm
• Weight: 322 g
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Fiction > Narrative literature > Contemporary literature (from 1945); FICTION / General, Fiction in translation