The Tallest Men
NOVEL. ALFAGUARA, 2021. 309 PAGES
«In a word? I'd describe it as a force. A malign force? It's not malign, Father, although it is capable of evil. An evil that depends upon the person wielding it, like the razor that shaves us one day and slits our throat the next.»
Manuel Palacios, born to a Tehuelche mother and Spanish father in Patagonia in 1904, joins a Salesian seminary because it represents his only chance to get ahead in the world. The friendships he forms with a classmate and, later, an eccentric Sicilian archaeologist, will take him on an unexpected path that eventually leads to the revelation that the Tehuelche are a chosen people.
Manuel's mystical quest takes the form of journeys on horseback from town to town in Patagonia getting him into misadventures with European travellers and indigenous peoples alike.
Both a coming of age story and historical thriller, The Tallest Men tells a dark, forgotten tale from a time when Patagonia was still largely a mystery, full myths and legends.
Review. Revista de Libros. La generación robada (article in Spanish)
«In the mountains of Patagonia, a young mestizo priest sets out on a mystical adventure that transports him into a legendary time that he (and the reader) feels as intensely real. He comes out of the experience determined to fight for justice for the oppressed Tehuelche people but his efforts will only result in greater suffering at the hands of the Argentine military. Fabián Martínez Siccardi has written a gripping novel that also serves as an impassioned plea for the restoration of the rights of an oppressed, downtrodden people. »
J.M. Coetzee
«I was amazed and moved by the writing of Fabián Martínez Siccardi: its clarity, frankness, its sense of belonging... »
Tobias Wolff
«...right from the beginning one feels that they are dealing with a consummate author, there's an immediate sensation of narrative authority. »
Guillermo Martínez
«In Los hombres más altos (The Tallest Men), Fabián Martínez Siccardi deconstructs white colonialism and imbues his novel with a superior force rooted in his remarkable writing.»
Juan Carlos Kreimer, PÁGINA 12
PUBLISHED BY: Spanish ALFAGUARA | Brazil PEABIRU | France LIANA LEVI
Other titles from Fabián Martínez Siccardi:
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NOVEL, 2023
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NOVEL, 2023
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NOVEL, 2017
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NOVEL, 2013
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NOVELA, 2012
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