Deadly snow falls in Buenos Aires, and the country faces an invasion of aliens amid anarchy. This is the premise associated with a renowned Argentine graphic narrative crafted by Héctor Germán Oesterheld, where the protagonist Juan Salvo must rally a resistance against the invaders. Two elements from this influential graphic history hold a significant place in Argentine culture and also surface within the author’s anti utopian novel. Another voice in this literary landscape is Pedro Mairal, whose work The Desert Year portrays the slow decay of modern civilization, accompanied by an irrational force that spreads like a rust stain and erodes everything until it vanishes into thin air.
From time to time, extraordinary novels surface in Argentine literature. A major publishing initiative has brought back Pedro Mairal’s Year of the Desert, a novel that follows the social collapse that threatens a sprawling metropolis. The narrative depicts how the revolution of new technologies falters in the twenty first century, how apartment occupations become common, along with street demonstrations of discontent, and how the government begins to mobilize conscription. In this context, a young woman named Maria Valdes, a twenty three year old secretary working in a high rise office in Buenos Aires, becomes a central figure within the unfolding crisis and its human consequences.
Unlike some of the author’s most famous works, the texts mentioned above offer a road movie quality in one title, a coming of age story for a student about to begin college, and a different frame in another where a forty year old protagonist travels to Montevideo. These journeys, full of adventure and misfortune, illuminate an impossible love and the toll it takes. In The Desert Year, the principal character becomes a female narrator in a fantastical realist critique of economic crises, reckless governments, and businessmen who stash wealth in tax havens to avoid payment of taxes. The novel alludes to money laundering schemes tied to tax haven networks and places a stark spotlight on the manipulation of capital. Mairal inserts a Cainite undertone that casts a critical light on both state and federal structures in a manner accessible to a broad readership. For readers in the Spanish speaking world, the themes translate into a universal critique that resonates beyond national borders, a resonance that reflects past and ongoing crises, from containment measures during a global health emergency to broader economic pressures that ripple across continents and contribute to inflationary shocks across Europe and the Americas alike.
Mairal narrates through a main character who serves as the tale’s confidant and storyteller, using a direct, unadorned style and a nonlinear timeline that intertwines a forward gaze with a long flashback. The narrative rhythm is swift, and the protagonist waits for an arrest that never comes, mirroring the energy of the Argentine song El Matador. The tempo is a defining feature, making the central conflict apparent from the opening pages and creating a persistent sense of oppression, a feeling that hovers over the reader. This sense of menace is echoed in a work by Cortázar about a house that becomes occupied and gradually relinquished by its occupants, a fictional device of creeping control. In that sense, Mairal’s hero observes a similar intrusion, though here the invaders are tangible figures rather than spectral forces, and the tension arises from the human actors as much as from the situation itself.
desert year
- Pedro Mairal
- editorial: Asteroid Books
- Price: 20.95 euros
These readings echo a broader meditation on social contract theory and the moral obligations of citizens amid upheaval. Philosophy and literary critique intersect as the narrative explores how a society can falter when political will wanes and collective responsibility erodes. The work shows that literature is not only about polishing language but also about conveying meaning, the power of a story to reflect human resilience, and the ways in which fiction reframes real world anxieties for readers seeking understanding and perhaps solace in difficult times.