It's October 1960, in a seaside Argentinian city named Santa Fe, and The Mathematician-wealthy, elegant, educated, dressed from head to toe in white-is just back from a grand tour of Europe. He's on his way to drop off a press release about the trip to the papers when he runs into Angel Leto, a relative newcomer to Santa Fe who does some accounting, but who this morning has decided to wander the town rather than go to work. One day soon, The Mathematician will disappear into exile after his wife's assassination, and Leto will vanish into the guerrilla underground.
Juan José Saer was the leading Argentinian writer of the post-Borges generation. The author of numerous novels and short-story collections (including Scars and La Grande), Saer was awarded Spain's prestigious Nadal Prize in 1987 for The Event.
Steve Dolph is the founder of Calque, a journal of literature in translation. His translation of Juan José Saer's Scars was a finalist for the 2012 Best Translated Book Award.