{"product_id":"the-famous-magician-9780811228893","title":"The Famous Magician","description":"A certain writer (past sixty, enjoying 'a certain renown') strolls through the old book market in a Buenos Aires park: My Sunday walk through the market, repeated over so many years, was part of my general fantasizing about books. Unfortunately, he is suffering from writer's block. However, that proves to be the least of our hero's problems. In the market, he fails to avoid the insufferable boor Ovando--a complete loser but a man supremely full of himself: Conceit was never less justified. And yet, is Ovando a master magician? Can he turn sugar cubes into pure gold? And can our protagonist decline the offer Ovando proposes granting him absolute power if the writer never in his life reads another book? And is his publisher also a great magician? And the writer's wife?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Only César Aira could have cooked up this witch's potion (and only he would plop in phantom Mont Blanc pens as well as fearsome crocodiles from the banks of the Nile)--a brew bubbling over with the question: where does literature end and magic begin?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New Directions Publishing Corporation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/16\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780811228893\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 48\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/27\/2020\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"C\u0026#233;sar Aira","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42223667478709,"sku":"9780811228893","price":15.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_7d9712cb-2855-440d-b7ac-40e2e69dcf23.jpg?v=1655781078","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-famous-magician-9780811228893","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}