{"product_id":"mantra","title":"Mantra","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eApril 20, 2024 \u003cbr\u003enovel | pb | 520 pgs.\u003cbr\u003e6\" x 9\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e978-1-960385-64-2\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"s4\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"s2\" style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2018 Best Translated Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"s4\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"s2\" style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2025 Republic of Consciousness Prize, USA \u0026amp; Canada\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"s4\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cb\u003eWhat does a nostalgic brain tumor, a specter obsessed with masked wrestlers, and a hypothetical android searching for a missing creator through a world in ruins have in common?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"s4\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e“\u003ci\u003eMantra\u003c\/i\u003e is a kaleidoscopic novel, shot through with fierce, occasionally over-the-top humor, written in a prose of rare precision that allows itself to oscillate between anthropological document and the delirium of late nights in a city—Mexico City—that superimposes itself on the subterranean cities beneath it like a snake swallowing itself . . . The novel, or so it appears (and I say appears because everything in this novel can come to seem only apparent, though its parts are assembled with mathematical exactitude), is divided into three long chapters. . . Among the multiple plotlines that crisscross like lightning bolts is the story of Joan Vollmer, killed in Mexico City while playing William Tell with her husband, William Burroughs; and the story of the Mexican masked wrestlers and the nouvelle vague film that one of them wants to make in France; and the story of LID, the international language of the dead; and the story of Mexican monsters and Mexican pornography; and the story of the female rock group Anorexia \u0026amp; The Skinnies; and the story of Martín Mantra as a millenarian and media-savvy guerrilla.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"s4\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e“\u003ci\u003eMantra \u003c\/i\u003eis one of the most exciting books I’ve read in recent years. It made me laugh more than any other book, and it seemed more virtuous and at the same time more roguish.”\u003cstrong\u003e—Roberto Bolaño\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e•\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cb\u003eRodrigo Fresán \u003c\/b\u003e(Buenos Aires, 1963) is the author of seventeen works of fiction, including \u003ci\u003eKensington Gardens\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Bottom of the Sky\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Invented Part\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Dreamed Part\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Remembered Part\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eMelvill\u003c\/i\u003e, all of which are available in English. He has translated and edited or annotated books by John Cheever, Denis Johnson, and Carson McCullers, and written prologues for and reviews of numerous North American writers. \u003ci\u003eThe Invented Part\u003c\/i\u003e won the Best Translated Book Award for fiction in 2018 and his most recent novel to appear in English, \u003ci\u003eMelvill\u003c\/i\u003e, won The Republic of Consciousness Prize, The Big Other Book Award for Translation, and was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award in Translation and the National Translation Award in 2025. In 2018, Fresán was awarded the Prix Roger Callois by the French government for his entire body of work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"mso-element: comment-list;\"\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"mso-element: comment-list;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\u003c!-- [if !supportAnnotations]--\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"mso-element: comment-list;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"mso-element: comment-list;\"\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eWill Vanderhyden\u003c\/b\u003e has translated works by Carlos Labbé, Rodrigo Fresán, Fernanda García Lao, Andrés Felipe Solano, Laura Fernández, and Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill, among others. His translations and writing have appeared in journals like \u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Baffler\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFuture Tense\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSouthwest Review\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eBomb Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e. He has received two translation fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (2016 and 2023) and a residency fellowship from Lannan Foundation (2015). His translation of \u003ci\u003eThe Invented Part\u003c\/i\u003e by Rodrigo Fresán won the 2018 Best Translated Book Award and his translation of Fresán’s \u003ci\u003eMelvill \u003c\/i\u003e(published in 2024) was a finalist for the National Translation Award and the National Book Critic’s Circle Award and won the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the Big Other Book Award. \u003cspan style=\"background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;\"\u003eHis \u003c\/span\u003etranslation of Andrés Felipe Solano’s \u003ci\u003eGloria\u003c\/i\u003e was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for Rodrigo Fresán:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\"A kaleidoscopic, open-hearted, shamelessly polymathic storyteller, the kind who brings a blast of oxygen into the room.\"\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Jonathan Lethem\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\"Rodrigo Fresán is the new star of Latin American literature. . . . There is darkness in him, but it harbors light within it because his prose—aimed at bygone readers—is brilliant.\"\u003cb\u003e—Enrique Vila-Matas\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\"I've read few novels this exciting in recent years. \u0026lt;i\u0026gt;Mantra\u0026lt;\/i\u0026gt; is the novel I've laughed with the most, the one that has seemed the most virtuosic and at the same time the most disruptive.\"\u003cb\u003e—Roberto Bolaño\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\"Rodrigo Fresán is a marvelous writer, a direct descendant of Adolfo Bioy Casares and Jorge Luis Borges, but with his own voice and of his own time, with a fertile imagination, daring and gifted with a vision as entertaining as it is profound.\"\u003cb\u003e—John Banville\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(64, 64, 64);\"\u003e\"With pop culture cornered by the forces of screen culture, says Fresán (knowing the risk to his profile of 'pop writer,' even coming out himself to discuss it), there's nothing left but to be classic. That's the only way to keep on writing.\"\u003cb\u003e—Alan Pauls\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Rodrigo Fresán","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":68068945658092,"sku":null,"price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"epub","offer_id":68068945690860,"sku":null,"price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/files\/9781960385642_FC_1_fd8360b4-21a5-425f-b968-ac9fa1c9b0bf.jpg?v=1793827495","url":"https:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/products\/mantra","provider":"Open Letter","version":"1.0","type":"link"}