Fake Name

SHORT STORIES, ANAGRAMA, 1975. 192 PAGES.

The tales included in Fake Name confirm once more that Piglia is one of the best contemporary authors writing anywhere. Deliberately combining tales with reviews, stories with essays and fiction with autobiography, Piglia produces texts that cross borders between genres again and again. The enchantment and originality of his inimitable style lie within these cross-overs, where the need to distinguish between the role of the writer and critic is forgotten.

The book contains gripping characters such as a man who chooses to remain silent when a word from him will help to avoid the death of a child, and a decrepit boxer who clings on to an old newspaper cutting testifying to his former glories. In the masterful novella that gives its title to the volume, which Piglia believes might be the best thing he has ever written, he pays homage to the brilliant Argentine writer Roberto Arlt.