Peregrino transparente
Juan Cárdenas
FICTION | 2023 | 256 pages
A uniquely virtuous novel by one of the most lauded voices in contemporary Latin American literature
Henry Price, an English painter participating in a scientific expedition throughout Colombia in 1850, is following the trail of an obscure local artist: there are only mere traces and rumors surrounding his identity. What starts as a mere professional interest—one artist fascinated with another artist—becomes a personal obsession, a philosophical adventure, and a learning trip for the foreign painter, who winds up being swallowed by the political maelstrom of the young republic.
This is the premise at the core of Peregrino transparente, a hypnotic novel where the ghosts of the contemporary world parade before our eyes, projected against the backdrop of the 19th century: the geopolitics of merchandise, racism as a mechanism of global domination, the colonial representations of the tropics, the destruction of nature as a result of irrational capitalism, as well as the utopias and imaginations of possible futures for the human race.
Written with the pulse and ambition of classic novels like Moby Dick, Zama, or, The Devil to Pay in the Backlands, Peregrino transparente is a work of unique virtuosity, capable of combining Westerns, poetry, and art history.
RIGHTS: spanish (spain, mexico, colombia, usa) EDITORIAL PERIFÉRICA | spanish (argentina & uruguay) EDITORIAL SIGILO | spanish (chile) MONTACERDOS | english (world) TRANSIT | italian POLIDORO | portuguese (brazil) DBA EDITORA
“In this kaleidoscope that Juan Cárdenas gifts us, there are so many little crystal fragments and ways to focus that, once you’ve finished reading Peregrino transparente, you will continue thinking, ruminating, and considering many things and perspectives. Yes—this is that kind of novel, so don’t miss out on it.
In Cárdenas’ novel, we follow Henry Price, an English watercolor painter who journeyed through Colombia in 1850 with the intention of taking inventory of natural and human resources to offer them to foreign investors...Again and again, Price continues to come across the work of a mysterious local artist with whom he becomes obsessed, and he does everything to learn about him and get to know him: José Rufino Pandiguando, who Cárdenas turns into Commander Kurtz, Price’s Moby Dick. Thanks to a snake charmer’s piercing prose and a superb narrative bite, the author leads us to retrace the steps of adventures, imaginaries, stories, and backroads where history itself also lived. All this without forgetting to give us a lucid look at colonialism, racism, identity, or the use of resources and capital that resonates with our here and now.”
“His new book knows how to link together centuries of powerful ideas with a rhythm that lies somewhere between an adventure novel and a Western (...) that drags the reader along in the most primitive and enjoyable way. To put it simply, you devour it.”
BY JUAN CÁRDENAS:
La ligereza
ESSAY, 2024
Peregrino transparente
NOVEL, 2023
Elástico de sombra
NOVEL, 2019
Volver a comer del árbol de la ciencia
STORIES, 2018
El diablo de las provincias
NOVEL, 2017
Ornamento
NOVEL, 2015
Los estratos
NOVEL, 2013
Zumbido
NOVEL, 2010
Carreras delictivas
STORIES, 2006