A novel of philosophy and love, politics and waltzes,
history and the here-and-now, Andrés Neuman's Traveller
of the Century is a journey into the soul of Europe,
penned by one of the most exciting South-American writers of
our time.
A traveller stops off for the night in the mysterious city of
Wandernburg. He intends to leave the following day, but the
city begins to ensnare him with its strange, shifting
geography.
When Hans befriends an old organ grinder, and
falls in love with Sophie, the daughter of a local merchant,
he finds it impossible to leave. Through a series of memorable
encounters with starkly different characters, Neuman takes the
reader on a hypothetical journey back into post-Napoleonic
Europe, subtly evoking its parallels with our modern
era.
At the heart of the novel lies the love story
between Sophie and Hans. They are both translators, and
between dictionaries and bed, bed and dictionaries,they
gradually build up their own fragile common
language.
Through their relationship Neuman explores the
idea that all love is an act of translation, and that all
translation is an act of love.
'A beautiful, accomplished novel: as ambitious as it is
generous, as moving as it is smart'
Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Guardian
Andrés Neuman (b. 1977) was born in Buenos Aires and
later moved to Granada, Spain. Selected as one of Granta
magazine's Best Young Spanish-Language Novelists, Neuman was
included in the Hay Festival's Bogotá 39 list. He has
published numerous novels, short stories, essays and poetry
collections. He received the Hiperión Prize for Poetry for
El tobogán, and Traveller of the Century won
the Alfaguara Prize and the National Critics Prize in 2009.
