La Uruguaya / The Woman from Uruguay

Publicada con gran éxito en Argentina en 2016, La uruguaya ha confirmado a Mairal como uno de los más destacados narradores de la literatura argentina contemporánea.

Lucas Pereyra, un escritor recién entrado en la cuarentena, viaja de Buenos Aires a Montevideo para recoger un dinero que le han mandado desde el extranjero y que no puede recibir en su país debido a las restricciones cambiarias. Casado y con un hijo, no atraviesa su mejor momento, pero la perspectiva de pasar un día en otro país en compañía de una joven amiga es suficiente para animarle un poco. Una vez en Uruguay, las cosas no terminan de salir tal como las había planeado, así que a Lucas no le quedará más remedio que afrontar la realidad.

Narrada con una brillante voz en primera persona, La uruguaya es una divertida novela sobre una crisis conyugal que nos habla también de cómo, en algún punto de nuestras vidas, debemos enfrentarnos a las promesas que nos hacemos y que no cumplimos, a las diferencias entre aquello que somos y aquello que nos gustaría ser.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

From acclaimed Argentine author Pedro Mairal and Man Booker International-winning translator Jennifer Croft, the unforgettable story of two would-be lovers over the course of a single day.

Lucas Pereyra, an unemployed writer in his forties, embarks on a day trip from Buenos Aires to Montevideo to pick up fifteen thousand dollars in cash. An advance due to him on his upcoming novel, the small fortune might mean the solution to his problems, most importantly the tension he has with his wife. While she spends her days at work and her nights out on the town-with a lover, perhaps, he doesn't know for sure-Lucas is stuck at home all day staring at the blank page, caring for his son Maiko and fantasizing about the one thing that keeps him going: the woman from Uruguay whom he met at a conference and has been longing to see ever since.

But that woman, Magalí Guerra Zabala, is a free spirit with her own relationship troubles, and the day they spend together in this beautiful city on the beach winds up being nothing like Lucas predicted. The constantly surprising, moving story of this dramatically transformative day in their lives, The Woman from Uruguay is both a gripping narrative and a tender, thought-provoking exploration of the nature of relationships. An international bestseller published in fourteen countries, it is the masterpiece of one of the most original voices in Latin American literature today.

"A perfect novel. A triumph from beginning to end. The novel's style, that carries the soft irony of a writer in command of his narrative voice, its extension, its verbal prowess, its impeccably paced rhythm and, of course, the theme: a marital crisis written from the perspective of an Argentine man in his mid forties who is facing an existential crisis." ―El Pais (Spain)

"[Pedro Mairal] displays his full talent in a wisely structured novel, outstanding in its narrative rhythm and in the twists and turns of the plot, where humor emerges at the same time a tragedy takes shape surrounding an enigma . . . A story about love and its imponderables." ―Página 12 (Argentina)

"I wasn't able to put the book down." ―María Dueñas

"A perfect novel." ―Edmundo Paz Soldan

"The loss and recovery of desire, the ambition of everlasting adventures, the earthquake of becoming a father, the flight forward . . . all these things occur in a single day (. . .), interwoven in the brilliant prose of Pedro Mairal, one of the best Latin American writers of our time." ―Leila Guerriero