Cu primul volum al prozei lui Jorge Luis Borges, Editura Polirom continua seria de opere dedicata unuia dintre autorii care si-au lasat amprenta asupra literaturii secolului XX. Volumul reuneste povestirile fantastice care l-au facut celebru pe Borges in toata lumea, in care sint surprinse, cu o acuitate uimitoare, problemele majore ale omului contemporan. Borges cultiva genul fantastic fara a recurge la truculenta vampirilor ori la feericul basmelor, pentru ca povestirile lui cu tilc sint „fantezii metafizice” si se realizeaza prin intermediul simbolului. Volumul se deschide cu problematica argentiniana din Evaristo Carriego (1930), pentru a se extinde curind la universalitatea unor teme ale conditiei umane dintotdeauna si de pretutindeni, prezentate, desigur, de cele mai multe ori, cu intensitatea si concretetea senzoriala a variantei lor latino-americane din volumele Istoria universala a infamiei (1930), Istoria eternitatii (1935) si Fictiuni (1944).
Author
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo, usually referred to as Jorge Luis Borges (Spanish pronunciation: [xoɾxe lwis boɾxes]), was an Argentine writer and poet born in Buenos Aires. In 1914, his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school and traveled to Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in Surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. Borges was fluent in several languages. He was a target of political persecution during the Peron regime, and supported the military juntas that overthrew it. Due to a hereditary condition, Borges became blind in his late fifties. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library (Biblioteca Nacional) and professor of Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first International Publishers' Prize Prix Formentor. His work was translated and published widely in the United States and in Europe. He died in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1986. J. M. Coetzee said of Borges: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish American novelists."
