La última actriz
Tamara Tenenbaum
NOVEL | 2024 | 200 pages
Two women, two timelines. A novel that explores feminine identity through time and memory.
Although she dreamed of becoming an actress, Sabrina wound up studying the Arts. Spurred by Gabriel—her thesis advisor and lover—she decides to investigate the traces of Jewish theater in Argentina. To do this she resorts to Jaim, an old professor who suggests she review the remains of the AMIA archives, the mutual organization that suffered a terrorist attack in 1994. “That was the moment I decided that I would dedicate my life to this past. It’s not like I was drawn to that world, at least not more than I was to any other: what compelled me was that it had disappeared.”
The investigation turns out to be complicated and difficult, because most of the documents disappeared with the bomb. That is until an archivist offers her a box where she discovers a diary by Jana, a Yiddish theater actress in Buenos Aires in 1960. Jana acts as a sort of magic mirror for Sabrina. Following her footsteps becomes an obsession, and everything else—her family, her career, her relationship with Gabriel—fades into the background.
In La última actriz, Tamara Tenenbaum demonstrates an exceptional narrative intelligence. With two disturbing female characters and a plot that is as elusive as it is hypnotic, this novel is about what it means to be a woman, desire and realization, the myth of the Dybuk and bodily possession, tradition and modernity, the city of Buenos Aires, and the search for an existential key in a stack of burned papers.
RIGHTS: spanish SEIX BARRAL/PLANETA | italian FANDANGO
“Tenenbaum brings Argentine Judaism to life as something more than just historical documentation. Through her characters, we see an essence that persists through generations. The novel illustrates how passion imbues life with meaning, while cultural heritage ensures its continuity.
Her novel offers a nuanced exploration of Argentine Jewish identity, weaving together themes of memory, inquiry and cultural legacy to create a rich tapestry of human experience.”
“The writing advances as though smuggling in elements of the essay. Through the two narrators and final epilogue, she is able to paint the nuances of Yiddish theater in our country. Tenenbaum turns an investigation topic that has very few supporting documents into the subject of her narration, and so finds a way to give substance to the experiences of a person who dedicates their life to knowledge. Throughout that journey, she achieves the unexpected: turning the intellectual into an emotional experience.”
BY TAMARA TENENBAUM:
La última actriz
NOVEL, 2024
Todas nuestras maldiciones se cumplieron
NOVEL, 2021
Nadie vive tan cerca de nadie
STORIES, 2020
El fin del amor
NON FICTION, 2019
Reconocimiento de terreno
POETRY, 2017