The novella is just the third book to be released in the U.S. by the prolific and legendary Mario Bellatin, one of today’s leading Latin American novelists. With Shiki Nagaoka, Bellatin introduces the neglected work of a mysterious Japanese writer – a character Bellatin invented at a writer’s conference after being asked for his influences. When he saw that his joke was being taken seriously, Bellatin realized he was on to something. Shiki Nagaoka is a hilarious investigation of narrative authority and the artifice of literary persona. Bellatin’s highly stylized fictional biography recounts Nagaoka’s early life, including his failed first attempt at love, his decision to enter the monastic life, and his family’s disavowal of him. A satire of the literary biography, Bellatin contextualizes Shiki’s untranslatable masterwork, his early use of narrative photography, and his influence on other important world writers, including Juan Rulfo and José María Arguedas. And of course Bellatin portrays Nagaoka’s incredible nose, the deformedly large appendage that determines his life path. Bellatin’s exhaustive research also uncovered a series of revealing photographs of his mysterious life – an archive of which are included in the book.
