Acclaimed Argentine writer to speak in Brooklyn
Brooklyn BookBeat: Patricio Pron’s latest explores father’s hidden past
Argentine novelist Patricio Pron, named one of Granta‘s Best Young Spanish-Language Novelists, has recently released his latest book, a moving autobiographical novel titled “My Fathers’ Ghost is Climbing in the Rain” (Knopf). The novel is already a sensation in Europe, earning rave reviews, and Pron will spread the excitement as he makes his first public appearance in the U.S. at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday, Sept. 22.
“My Fathers’ Ghost is Climbing in the Rain” tells the story of a young Argentine man who returns to his hometown to visit his dying father. The nameless protagonist, who has been living in Germany, is largely estranged from his life in Argentina. In fact, he reveals that during his eight-year stint abroad he consumed a variety of pills that cloud his memory.
But upon his visit to his hometown, he is forced to confront his past and family life. He arrives at the hospital and notes that his sister, upon seeing him, began crying “as if I were bringing terrible and unexpected news…” In a tone that appears superficially disaffected but also deeply emotional, the narrator recalls his interactions with his mother, who “had a gaze that could turn the demons out of hell,” and his father, who “was still alive, fighting and losing but still alive.”