8.2 /10 1 Votes
Translator Esther Allen Language Spanish ISBN 987-9396-47-2 OCLC 858896468 | 4.1/5 Goodreads Country Argentina Pages 201 (NYRB) Originally published 1977 Page count 201 (NYRB) Genres History, Psychology | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Published in english 2016 (New York Review Books) Similar Animal World, The Restaurant at the En, Los Siete Locos, Adam Buenosayres, Last Evenings on Earth | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Zama is a 1956 novel by Argentine writer Antonio di Benedetto. Existential in nature, the plot centers around the eponymous Don Diego de Zama, a minor official of the colonial Spanish Empire stationed in remote Paraguay during the late 18th century and his attempts to receive a long-awaited promotion and transfer to Spain in the face of mental and professional setbacks. Together with two of his other novels, El silenciero (1964) and Los suicidas (1969), Zama has been published as part of Benedetto's informal La trilogía de la espera (The Trilogy of Expectation). The novel is considered by various critics to be a major work of Argentine literature.
Contents
Plot summary
Don Diego de Zama is a servant to the Spanish crown in remote Paraguay. Separated from his wife and children, he continuously schemes for professional advancement as he struggles with his mental and emotional state as isolation, bureaucratic setbacks, and self-destructive choices begin to compound themselves in his life. The novel is divided chronologically into three sections: 1790, 1794, and 1799, which focus on, respectively, Zama's sexual, financial, and existential conflicts.
Reception
Obscure on its original release and unknown to English readers before its translation in 2016, Zama has since been considered by various critics to be a major work of Argentine literature. Roberto Bolaño used Antonio di Benedetto and Zama as the basis of his short story "Sensini" from the collection Last Evenings on Earth, about fictional writer Luis Antonio Sensini and his novel Ugarte, likewise about an 18th-century colonial bureaucrat, described as having been written with "neurosurgical precision."
Adaptation
Zama is currently being adapted into a feature film by Argentine director Lucrecia Martel, set to be released in 2017.