Personal Hypnotizer

 Personal Hypnotizer, short story in The Iowa Review. 

The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra

Synopsis

At the age of nine, Juan Salvatierra became mute following a horse riding accident. At twenty, he began secretly painting a series of long rolls of canvas in which he minutely detailed six decades of life in his village on Argentina’s river frontier with Uruguay. After the death of Salvatierra, his sons return to the village from Buenos Aires to deal with their inheritance: a shed packed with painted rolls stretching over two miles in length and depicting personal and communal history. Museum curators from Europe come calling to acquire this strange, gargantuan artwork. But an essential one of its rolls is missing. A search that illuminates the links between art and life ensues, as an intrigue of family secrets buried in the past cast their shadows on the present.

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About the author

Pedro Mairal made a splash with his debut novel, Una noche con Sabrina Love, which tells the story of an 18-year-old boy who wins a night with a porn star of his dreams. Una noche con Sabrina Love (1999), was made into a film by Alejandro Agresti and was widely translated. Mairal, who was born in Buenos Aires in 1970, is a professor of English Literature; he has been recognized as one of the most original voices in Latin American literature today, and in 1998 was awarded the Premio Clarín. He is also the author of the book of short stories Hoy temprano(2001) and the novel El año del desierto (2005). In 2007 he was included in the Bogotá 39, which named the best Latin American authors. 

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English

Pedro Mairal

English translations:

The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra (novel)

Personal Hypnotizer (short story)

Early this mornig (short story)

Camping in Maschwitz (short story)

One night with Sabrina Love (novel, chapter 1)

English interviews and reviews:

"Restraint and Closure: The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra", 2013

“I believe in leaving an empty chair for the reader” – an interview with Pedro Mairal in Wilde-leser, 2010

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"An ambitious understatment", Buenos Aires Herlad, 2008.

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"Argentine fiction, an evolving story", Los Angeles Times, 2008.

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‘It’s more than even I imagined’, Buenos Aires Herlad, 1998.

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Pedro Mairal was born in Buenos Aires in 1970. He studied a degree in ‘Letras’ (‘Humanities’) at USAL (‘University of el Salvador’) where he was an assistant lecturer of English Literature. He has published three novels, a volume of short stories and two poetry books. His first novel,“Una noche con Sabrina Love”, was awarded the ‘Premio Clarín’ (‘Clarín Prize’) in 1998 with a panel of judges comprising Roa Bastos, Bioy Casares and Cabrera Infante, and was adapted to the screen in the year 2000. His work has been translated and published in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland and Germany. In 2007 the Bogotá39 jury selected him among the most notorious 39 young Latin-American authors. He currently lives in Buenos Aires.

Published work:

1996 - Tigre como los pájaros - (poetry)
1998 - Una noche con Sabrina Love - (novel) ("One night with Sabrina Love")
2001 - Hoy temprano - (short stories) ("Early this morning")
2003 - Consumidor Final - (poetry)
2005 - El año del desierto - (novel) ("The year of the desert")
2008 - Salvatierra  (novel) (The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra)-
2013- El gran surubí (novel in sonnets)
2013- El equilibrio (collection of daily columns)