HOW TO TRAVEL WITHOUT SEEING

A dizzying, fast-paced tour of Latin America provides one of the Spanish-speaking world’s most outstanding writers with the occasion for an experimental travelogue somewhere between personal diary and critical essay. Lamenting not having more time to get to know each of the nineteen countries he visits after winning the Premio Alfaguara, Andrés Neuman concludes that world travel consists mostly of “not seeing.” Turning the fleeting nature of his trip into a creative and critical advantage, he writes on planes and in airports and hotel rooms to produce a work that is whimsical and fun, poetic and aphoristic. A dual Argentine-Spanish citizen, Neuman offers incisive insight into cultural identity and nationality, immigration and globalization, history and language. The enigmatic How to Travel Without Seeing is a must-read for anyone interested in our neighbors to the south and their current literature.