A Plan for Escape.

St. Paul, MN Graywolf Press: Palabra Sur Books, 1988. Paperback First Edition Thus (1988), Second Printing. First published in hardcover by Dutton in 1975. Very Good+ in Wraps: shows only the most minute indications of use: just a hint of wear to extremities; the mildest rubbing to the panels; a small patch of sunning around the tp of the front hinge and head of the backstrip (the black titles thereon are unaffected: bold and clearly legible). The binding is square and secure; the text is clean. Free of any creases to the backstrip. Free of any creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of underlining, hi-lighting, notations, or marginalia. Free of any ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, plates, or labels. A handsome copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing very mild wear and minor, unobtrusive cosmetic imperfections. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. (9 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches). 116 pages. Front panel painting by Cesar Paternosto. Translated by Suzanne Jill Levine. Language: English. Weight: 6.4 ounces. First published in Spanish in 1969. This translation was first published in hardcover by Dutton in 1975. Trade Paperback. Adolfo Bioy Casares (1914 – 1999) was an Argentine fiction writer, journalist, diarist, and translator. He was a friend and frequent collaborator with his fellow countryman Jorge Luis Borges. He is the author of the acclaimed novel 'The Invention of Morel'. The story here revolves around Henri Nevers, a Frenchman sent by his father to a post at a penal colony in French Guiana. Arriving at Cayenne, the seat of government, Nevers learns that the governor, Castel, has deserted Cayerme to "be alone with the prisoners" on the islands. When Nevers ferries to the islands, Castel meets him with delight as "an educated collaborator." Nevers intuits that "Castel's interest in social and prison matters is strictly sadistic," and he tries to remain uninvolved. Confronted by inmates' allusive remarks and his own observations, however, he is compelled to follow the clues that lead him to unearth the horrible results of Castel's reign. Despite the novel's horrors, its tone is eerily distanced by its point of view: The tale is narrated by Nevers' uncle who has pieced it together from his nephew's letters. The relationship between prisoners and keepers is a dominant theme. As one character states, "Conscience and prisons are incompatible." This theme proceeds from the author's reaction to accounts of Nazism in 1945, and it also looks forward to the systematic tortures that would take place in Argentina in the 1970s. A Plan for Escape is an eerily engrossing novel, bound to captivate the reader.