Shantytown
From the prolific Argentinian author comes this intriguing short novel, originally published in 1991, set in a shantytown in Buenos Aires. At the story’s center is Maxi, a hulking young man from a middle-class family who spends his nights helping the shantytown’s collectors (read scavengers) cart their heavy loads of cardboard and other detritus. Maxi has come under the scrutiny of Inspector Cabezas of the Buenos Aires police, who’s desperate to find out who’s distributing drugs in the shantytown. To get to Maxi, the inspector takes a circuitous route, approaching Maxi’s sister posing as the grieving father of a young murder victim (the dead girl went to the same school as Maxi’s sister). Aira follows these two men, the cop and the kid, as they move through the slums in circles until they finally, and rather explosively, come together. Depending on how you read it, this is either a taut noir crime novel or a searing portrait of Buenos Aires’ poverty-stricken people. Either way, it’s compelling stuff. --David Pitt