''Libro de Manuel'' is a novel by Julio Cortázar, first published in 1973. It was later translated into English by

Gregory Rabassa Gregory Rabassa, ComM (March 9, 1922 – June 13, 2016), was an American literary translator from Spanish and Portuguese to English. He taught for many years at Columbia University and Queens College. Life and career Rabassa was born in Yonkers, ...

and published in the US as ''A Manual for Manuel.'' Cortázar's only explicitly

political novel Political fiction employs narrative to comment on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction, such as political novels, often "directly criticize an existing society or present an alternative, even fantast ...

, it was written as a direct response to the escalating political repression and violence in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and elsewhere in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

. Though it received the Medici Award, it received a generally lukewarm critical reception and was described by the author himself as "the worst of my books." Describing the unfolding of a plot to kidnap a Latin American diplomat, it incorporates into the text a number of news articles reproduced from contemporary newspaper accounts of the political situation in Latin America. Cortázar directed that all the royalties from the book be used to provide assistance to the victims of political repression.Herráez, Miguel. ''Julio Cortázar, Una Biografía Revisada''. Alrevés, 2011 pp. 282-285

External links

Postmodernist Collage and Montage in Julio Cortázar's ''Libro de Manuel''.
Article by Santiago Juan-Navarro.

References

1973 Argentine novels Argentine political novels Novels by Julio Cortázar Postmodern novels {{postmodern-novel-stub