On Heroes and Tombs

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Title On Heroes and Tombs
Author Ernesto Sabato
Original title Sobre Héroes y Tumbas
Translator Helen R. Lane
Country Argentina
Language Spanish
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Sudamericana
Released 1961
Media type Print (Paperback)
ISBN NA

On Heroes and Tombs (in original Spanish Sobre héroes y tumbas) is a novel by Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato, first published in Buenos Aires by Editorial Sudamericana in 1961 (translated by Helen R. Lane in 1981 as On heroes and tombs.)

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

It tells the story of 19 year-old Martín Castillo, a boy from Buenos Aires trying to find his path in life. He meets and falls in love with Alejandra Vidal Olmos who with her father Fernando represents the "old", colonial and autoctonous Argentina, which is seen mutating amid a strange and unsettling "new" world. The novel gives an evocative portrait of the city of Buenos Aires and its people.

[edit] Literary significance and criticism

This work, filled with dark and emotional imagery, is considered by many to be Sabato's magnum opus, and the section Informe sobre ciegos ("Report on the Blind"), about Fernando's distorted obsession with, and fear of, the sightless, is a haunting, nightmarish contribution to Latin American horror literature.[citation needed]

[edit] References to actual history, geography and current science

Interspersed with the text of the novel, as an almost surrealistic running commentary on it, is the italicised narrative of the flight, killing and ensuing odyssey of Juan Lavalle, a classic Argentine subject.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

John Malkovich has optioned the film rights for this novel.


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