Ernesto Sabato - On Heroes and Tombs, and other works (4 books)

ERNESTO SÁBATO (1911–2011) was an Argentine novelist, essayist, painter and physicist.  His novels are notable for their concern with philosophical and psychological issues.  He became an influential figure throughout the Latin American literary world and won many international prizes, including the 1984 Cervantes Prize, Hispanic literature's most prestigious award.  When he died, El País dubbed him the "last classic writer in Argentine literature".

Sábato received his doctorate in physics in 1937.  Between 1940-45 he taught theoretical physics at the National University of La Plata and at a college in Buenos Aires.  He contributed to the literary section of La Nación, one of Argentina's leading newspapers, articles that stated his opposition to the Juan Perón government, and as a result he was removed from his teaching posts in 1945.  After World War II, he lost faith in science and began writing fiction.

His first novel, THE TUNNEL (1948) , is an existentialist classic framed as the confession of a tormented outcast who has murdered the only woman capable of understanding him.  It won Sábato national and international notice, receiving critical acclaim from, among others, Albert Camus and Thomas Mann.

ON HEROES AND TOMBS (1961) , his second novel, is regarded as his masterpiece, though he nearly burnt it like many of his other works.  Woven around a violent crime – the scion of a prominent Argentinian family shoots her father and burns herself alive over his corpse – it is a penetrating psychological study interwoven with philosophical ideas and observations.

Set in teeming, corrupt Buenos Aires, THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS (1974, corrected and revised 1978) creates a portrait of a city, a culture and the tortured soul of a man who dares to look truth in the face.  The novel was hailed as extraordinary for its complexity of vision, breadth of scope, and the variety of lives and emotions Sábato captures.

THE WRITER IN THE CATASTROPHE OF OUR TIME (1990) is a collection of essays that bring together the philosophical ideas presented in his novels, and a passionate plea for the importance of magic, myth and art for the survival of humanity.  It won the 1989 Jerusalem Prize for "the most significant contribution to the idea of the freedom of the individual in society."


The following books are in ePUB or PDF format as noted:

== NOVELS ==

* Angel of Darkness, The (Ballantine, 1991).  A. Hurley, trans. – PDF^
* On Heroes and Tombs (Penguin, 2017).  H. Lane, trans. – ePUB
* Tunnel, The  (Penguin, 2011).  M. Sayers Peden, trans. – ePUB

== ESSAYS ==

* Writer in the Catastrophe of our Time (Council Oak, 1990).  A. Zatz, trans. – PDF

PDF^ courtesy of Mohamed5438


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