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About the Book

In the mid 1990s Emilio Renzi leaves behind his unstable life in Argentina to take a visiting position at a prestigious university in New Jersey. Settling in for a semester of academic quietude and wintry isolation, he is surprised to be swept up in a secret romance with his colleague, the brilliant and enigmatic Ida Brown. But their clandestine relationship comes to an abrupt end when Ida is discovered in her car, killed in what appears to be a tragic accident. Discontented with the police’s lackluster inquiries, and troubled by the inexplicable burn found on her hand, Renzi begins his own investigation.

Renzi's suspicions are piqued as details emerge about a bizarre string of attacks, apparently targeting scientists and researchers. But after a radical manifesto appears in the press threatening continued violence, the killer's identity is suddenly revealed. As he delves deeper into Ida Brown’s past, Renzi discovers a link between her and the terrorist that sets him on a path of no return: he must discover once and for all whether her death was part of a larger pattern and, if so, whether she was a victim or accomplice. Renzi’s quest for truth reveals not only the secrets of his former lover, but also reveals a darker side of humanity that will force him to confront the systems and culture that could produce such a misguided killer.

A bracing critique of American culture and an exploration of privacy and politics in an era of rapid technological advancement, Piglia’s signature blend of autobiography and fiction is in full effect in this intriguing twist on the detective novel.

Praise for The Way Out

“With his trademark mixture of autobiography and fiction, reminiscent of Ben Lerner, Sheila Heti, and Rachel Cusk, Piglia explores themes similar to those of Don DeLillo’s Mao II (1991), regarding the connection between art and violence, in this thoughtful, slight, and mesmeric crime novel by a giant of innovative literature.”

—Alexander Moran, Booklist

“The late Ricardo Piglia is a legend in Argentina, but oft-overlooked in the US; his latest English translation is another mind-bending mix of autofiction and detective novel. It's got all the twists, turns, paranoia, tangents, and weirdness you'd expect if you've encountered his books like Target in the Night and Artificial Respiration — an oddball crime novel that's part of a tradition spanning from G.K. Chesterton to True Detective.”

—Justin Souther of Malaprop’s Bookstore, Buzzfeed News

“Deceptively casual, and considerably bigger in sum than its pieces might suggest… Ida's path, and Renzi's, and Munk's prove surprisingly (and rather disturbingly) relevant in the present-day United States. A fine and interesting work.” 

—M. A. Orthofer, The Complete Review

“An offbeat take on the campus novel, full of sex, intrigue, and marginalia.”

—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for The Diaries of Emilio Renzi: The Happy Years

“Much like Susan Sontag, the American essayist and one of my favorite writers, my first introduction to Piglia is through his diaries. And what a privilege to be in someone’s head even for a bit, to know what troubled or delighted them as they made their way into the world. That no matter how esteemed or revered they are in the public spotlight, they deal with the same problems most of us do: figuring out how to make rent, finding enough time to write, loss, heartbreak.”

— Pia Cortez, Book Look

”The Diaries of Emilio Renzi continue to be a fascinating literary-autobiographical experiment ... and, especially, a wonderful immersion in literature itself. Of particular interest in showing the transition of Latin American (and specifically Argentine) literature—no longer: ‘out of sync, behind, out of place’—, Piglia's range extends far beyond that too. Yes, most of this is presumably mainly of interest to the similarly literature-obsessed—but Piglia makes it hard to imagine who wouldn't be.”

— M. A. Orthofer, The Complete Review

Praise for The Diaries of Emilio Renzi: The Formative Years

“Splendidly crafted and interspliced with essays and stories, this beguiling work is to a diary as Piglia is to “Emilio Renzi”: a lifelong alter ego, a highly self-conscious shadow volume that brings to bear all of Piglia’s prowess as it illuminates his process of critical reading and the inevitable tensions between art and life. Amid meeting redheads at bars, he dissects styles and structures with a surgeon’s precision, turning his gaze on a range of writers, from Plato to Dashiell Hammett, returning time and again to Pavese, Faulkner, Dostoyevsky, Arlt and Borges.... this is an embarrassment of riches... No previous familiarity with Piglia’s work is needed to appreciate these bibliophilic diaries, adroitly repurposed through a dexterous game of representation and masks that speaks volumes of the role of the artist in society, the artist in his time, the artist in his tradition.”

—Mara Faye Lethem, The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice

“For the past few years, every Latin American novelist I know has been telling me how lavish, how grand, how transformative was the Argentinian novelist Ricardo Piglia’s final project, a fictional journal in three volumes, Los diarios de Emilio Renzi—Renzi being Piglia’s fictional alter ego. And now here at last is the first volume in English, The Diaries of Emilio Renzi: Formative Years, translated by Robert Croll. It’s something to be celebrated… [It] offer[s] one form of resistance to encroaching fascism: style.”

—Adam Thirlwell, BookForum, The Best Books of 2017

“A valediction from the noted Argentine writer, known for bringing the conventions of hard-boiled U.S. crime drama into Latin American literature...Fans of Cortázar, Donoso, and Gabriel García Márquez will find these to be eminently worthy last words from Piglia.”

—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“When young Ricardo Piglia wrote the first pages of his diaries, which he would work on until the last years of his life, did he have any inkling that they would become a lesson in literary genius and the culmination of one of the greatest works of Argentine literature?”

—Adam Thirlwell, BookForum, The Best Books of 2017

“Ricardo Piglia, who passed away earlier this year at age seventy-five, is celebrated as one of the giants of Argentine literature, a rightful heir to legends like Borges, Cortázar, Juan Jose Saer, and Roberto Arlt. The Diaries of Emilio Renzi is his life's work... An American equivalent might be if Philip Roth now began publishing a massive, multi-volume autobiography in the guise of Nathan Zuckerman…. It is truly a great work.... This is a fantastic, very rewarding read—it seems that Piglia has found a form that can admit everything he has to say about his life, and it is a true pleasure to take it in.”

—Veronica Esposito, BOMB Magazine

About the Author

Ricardo Piglia (Buenos Aires, 1940–2017), professor emeritus of Princeton University, is unanimously considered a classic of contemporary Spanish-language literature. He published five novels, including Artificial Respiration, The Absent City, and Target in the Night, as well as collections of stories and criticism. Among the numerous prizes he received were the Premio de la Crítica, Premio Rómulo Gallegos, Premio Bartolomé March, Premio Casa de las Américas, Premio José Donoso, and Premio Formentor de las Letras.

About the Translator

Robert Croll is a writer, translator, musician, and artist originally from Asheville, North Carolina. He first came to translation during his undergraduate studies at Amherst College, where he focused particularly on the short fiction of Julio Cortázar.

Book Details

Paperback: $18.00
ISBN: 9781632062208
eBook ISBN: 9781632062215
Publication date: Aug 18, 2020 
5.5" x 8.25" • 288 pages
Fiction: Mysteries & Thrillers / Latin American / Detective / Academic Thriller
Territory: World English