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Mohrbooks Literary Agency Maren Wiederhold |
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CANON DE CÁMARA OBSCURA
The best of Enrique Vila-Matas returns to the style of the celebrated A Brief History of Portable Literature with a book about books, about the impossibility of writing, and about the ultimate meaning of literature.
A novel as erudite as it is ironic, offering a unique journey through a light and portable library of essential books while exploring themes such as the foreign voices that coexist within us or the infinite absence left by those we love"the same absence that Eurydice left Orpheus, from which many believe writing was born."
Vidal Escabia, the protagonist of this story, has selected 71 books in a darkroom of his house with the idea of writing a displaced, untimely, and unconventional canon over the course of 71 daysa dissident alternative to official canons. Each morning, he randomly selects one of these books and brings a fragment to light for his Canon. However, what he uncovers in his readings influences both his life and his writing. Suspicions arise about whether the author of the Darkroom Canon has an android origin and is a survivor of Barcelona's Denver-7, or whether, on the contrary, he is using the canon to give meaning to his life in the face of the boundless love he feelsbeyond time and spacefor his absent daughter.
Enrique Vila-Matas (Barcelona, 1948) is one of the most prestigious and original writers in contemporary Spanish fiction. With an extensive body of work, his novels have been translated into 35 languages, garnering widespread international praise.
He is the recipient of many prestigious honors and awards such as Rómulo Gallegos Award 2001, Prix Fernando Aguirre-Libralire 2002, Herralde Novel Award 2003, Prix Médicis 2003, Ennio Flaiano Award 2006, Elsa Morante Literary Prize 2007, Mondello Award 2009, Prix Carrière 2010, the Bottari Lattès Grinzane 2011, Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France 2013, the Formentor Prize 2014, the prestigious FIL Award 2015, the Catalan Culture National Award 2016, the Feronia Città di Fiano Award 2017 and the Prix Ulysse (2017). He was named Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, is a member of the tumultuous Order of Finnegan's and is the (unknown) rector of the Unknown University of New York (McNally Jackson). Among his works one should not fail to mention: Historia abreviada de la literatura portátil (Anagrama, 1985 Debolsillo, 2015), El viajero más lento (Anagrama, 1992 Seix Barral, 2011), Bartleby y compañía (Anagrama, 2000 Debolsillo, 2016), El mal de Montano (Anagrama, 2002 Debolsillo, 2013), París no se acaba nunca (Anagrama, 2004 Seix Barral, 2013), Doctor Pasavento (Anagrama, 2005 Seix Barral, 2017), Dublinesca (Seix Barral, 2010), Aire de Dylan (Seix Barral, 2012), Kassel no invita a la lógica (Seix Barral, 2014), Mac y su contratiempo (Seix Barral, 2017) and the celebrated novel Esta bruma insensata (Seix Barral, 2019).
He has also published several works about the nature of art and creation: Marienbad Éléctrique (Bourgois, 2015), a short essay on the nature of art and creation for Dominique Gonzalez Foerster's retrospective in Paris in 2015, the collection of articles Impón tu suerte (Círculo de tiza, 2018) and, more recently, Cabinet d´amateur, an oblique novel (Whitechapel Gallery, 2019) about his experience as a curator for the London based Whitechapel Gallery.
After publishing the acclaimed novel Montevideo (Seix Barral, 2022), in 2025 he publishes Canon de la cámara oscura (Seix Barral, 2025), that is already one of his best works.
Vidal Escabia, the protagonist of this story, has selected 71 books in a darkroom of his house with the idea of writing a displaced, untimely, and unconventional canon over the course of 71 daysa dissident alternative to official canons. Each morning, he randomly selects one of these books and brings a fragment to light for his Canon. However, what he uncovers in his readings influences both his life and his writing. Suspicions arise about whether the author of the Darkroom Canon has an android origin and is a survivor of Barcelona's Denver-7, or whether, on the contrary, he is using the canon to give meaning to his life in the face of the boundless love he feelsbeyond time and spacefor his absent daughter.
Enrique Vila-Matas (Barcelona, 1948) is one of the most prestigious and original writers in contemporary Spanish fiction. With an extensive body of work, his novels have been translated into 35 languages, garnering widespread international praise.
He is the recipient of many prestigious honors and awards such as Rómulo Gallegos Award 2001, Prix Fernando Aguirre-Libralire 2002, Herralde Novel Award 2003, Prix Médicis 2003, Ennio Flaiano Award 2006, Elsa Morante Literary Prize 2007, Mondello Award 2009, Prix Carrière 2010, the Bottari Lattès Grinzane 2011, Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France 2013, the Formentor Prize 2014, the prestigious FIL Award 2015, the Catalan Culture National Award 2016, the Feronia Città di Fiano Award 2017 and the Prix Ulysse (2017). He was named Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, is a member of the tumultuous Order of Finnegan's and is the (unknown) rector of the Unknown University of New York (McNally Jackson). Among his works one should not fail to mention: Historia abreviada de la literatura portátil (Anagrama, 1985 Debolsillo, 2015), El viajero más lento (Anagrama, 1992 Seix Barral, 2011), Bartleby y compañía (Anagrama, 2000 Debolsillo, 2016), El mal de Montano (Anagrama, 2002 Debolsillo, 2013), París no se acaba nunca (Anagrama, 2004 Seix Barral, 2013), Doctor Pasavento (Anagrama, 2005 Seix Barral, 2017), Dublinesca (Seix Barral, 2010), Aire de Dylan (Seix Barral, 2012), Kassel no invita a la lógica (Seix Barral, 2014), Mac y su contratiempo (Seix Barral, 2017) and the celebrated novel Esta bruma insensata (Seix Barral, 2019).
He has also published several works about the nature of art and creation: Marienbad Éléctrique (Bourgois, 2015), a short essay on the nature of art and creation for Dominique Gonzalez Foerster's retrospective in Paris in 2015, the collection of articles Impón tu suerte (Círculo de tiza, 2018) and, more recently, Cabinet d´amateur, an oblique novel (Whitechapel Gallery, 2019) about his experience as a curator for the London based Whitechapel Gallery.
After publishing the acclaimed novel Montevideo (Seix Barral, 2022), in 2025 he publishes Canon de la cámara oscura (Seix Barral, 2025), that is already one of his best works.
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Book Published 2025-04-02 by Seix Barral |