Ocho relatos unidos de forma sutil que confirman a Julio Cort zar como uno de los mejores cuentistas argentinos.

«A vos que me le s, no te habr pasado eso que empieza en un sue o y vuelve en muchos sue os, pero no es eso, no es solamente un sue o? Algo que est ah pero d nde, c mo.

Cuando Cort zar parec a haber alcanzado la perfecci n en el g nero, Octaedro (1974) aport novedades de su maestr a incomparable a la hora de escribir cuentos.

Los ocho relatos que componen Octaedro -una figura tan geom trica como misteriosa, tan perfecta como reticente- entremezclan cierto contenido social y pol tico que Cort zar hab a abordado en Libro de Manuel (1973) con sus tem ticas m s recurrentes: el amor, el sue o, la enfermedad, la muerte, el umbral entre lo cotidiano y lo fant stico.

Pero, adem s, estos relatos funcionan como caras que, en su conjunto, van completando el sentido de la figura total: as , quien relata su propia muerte en "Liliana llorando" tendr su contracara en "Las fases de Severo". Cada una de las tramas encuentra a lo largo de este libro continuaciones alternativas, extra as formas de resonancia.

Compacto y, al mismo tiempo, ilimitado; preciso y tambi n impredecible, si a un libro de cuentos le cabe el atributo de novela encubierta, no hay dudas de que es a Octaedro.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Eight short stories, linked in a subtle way, that reaffirm Julio Cort zar as one of the best Argentinian storytellers.

"You who read me, has it happened to you that a dream begins and returns in many other dreams, but it isn't that, it isn't only a dream? Something that is there, but where, how."

By the time Cort zar seemed to have reached perfection in this genre, Octahedron (1974) provided new insights into his incomparable mastery when it comes to writing short stories.

The eight tales in Octahedron--a figure as geometric as it is mysterious, as perfect as it is reticent--commingle certain social and political topics that Cort zar had already addressed in A Manual for Manuel (1973) with his most recurring themes: love, dreams, disease, death, the threshold between the ordinary and the fantastic.

Also, these stories work as faces that, together, complete the figure in its entirety. Thus, the person recounting his own death in "Liliana Weeping" will have his counterpart in "Severo's Phases." Throughout the book, each plot finds alternative continuations, bizarre forms of resonance.

Compact and at the same time limitless, precise and unpredictable, if there is a collection of short stories that could have the attribute of being a covert novel, it would unarguably be Octahedron.

Octaedro - häftad, Spanska, 1996