Las armas secretas

Las armas secretas (translates to The Secret Weapons in English) is a book of 5 short stories written by Julio Cortázar. Four of the stories appear in translation in the volume Blow-up and Other Stories (alternatively titled The End of the Game and Other Stories); one story, "Cartas de Mamá," has never been translated into English.

Stories

• Letters from Mom: a story about an Argentine couple living in exile in Paris where they live under the yoke of a dark story that happened before leaving Buenos Aires.
• Good services ("At Your Service" in the US translation): a mystery with a strong element of social criticism.
• The Droolings of the Devil ("Blow-Up" in the US translation): the story that inspired the film Blowup by Michelangelo Antonioni for its digressive execution of metalinguistic narrative and lucid contemplation; (its beginning guarantees it, never will you know how it has to be told, if in the first person or in the second, using the third person plural or continually inventing forms that serve no purpose)
• The Pursuer: a homage to jazz and the creator of bebop, Charlie Parker, in which Cortázar unfurls countless musical choices, between allegories and metaphors, that reveal to the reader the author's exquisite passion for music.
• Daily Terror ("Secret Weapons" in the US translation): the story of the same title as the book that assembles these stories, centering on the conflict between Pierre and Michele, a young couple in Paris after World War II.