César Aira

How I Became a Nun by César Aira is a novel set in Rosario, Argentina, about a precocious six-year-old named César Aira. César the character, who claims to be, alternately, a boy and a girl, has a hyper-developed sense of reality, a plethora of hang-ups, and a casual relationship with the truth. Contrary to what the …

New in the New Directions Pearls series: an extremely rich mad scientist attempts to clone a leading genius in a bid to take over the world. César is a translator who’s fallen on very hard times due to the global economic downturn; he is also an author, and a mad scientist hell-bent on world domination. On a visit to …