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Tumba de Jaguares (Emece Cruz del Sur)
Jaguars' Tomb is a novel in three parts, written by three interconnected characters. Part one, "Hidden Variables" by María Celina Igarzábal, is narrated by Bruno Seguer. Seguer in turn is the author of the second part, "Recounting from Zero" ("Contar desde zero"), in which Evelynne Harrington, author of the third, is a central character. Harrington, finally, is the author of "Uncertainty" ("La incertidumbre"), whose protagonist is the dying Igarzábal. Each of the three parts revolves around the octagonal room that is alternately the jaguars' tomb, the central space of the torture center, and the heart of an abandoned house that hides an adulterous affair.
The novel, by Argentine author Angélica Gorodischer, is both an intriguing puzzle and a meditation on how to write about, or through, violence, injustice, and loss. Among Gorodischer's many novels, Jaguars' Tomb most directly addresses the abductions and disappearances that occurred under the Argentine military dictatorship of 1976-83. This is the fourth of Gorodischer's books translated into English. The first, Kalpa Imperial--translated by Ursula Le Guin--was selected for the New York Times summer reading list in 2003.
The novel, by Argentine author Angélica Gorodischer, is both an intriguing puzzle and a meditation on how to write about, or through, violence, injustice, and loss. Among Gorodischer's many novels, Jaguars' Tomb most directly addresses the abductions and disappearances that occurred under the Argentine military dictatorship of 1976-83. This is the fourth of Gorodischer's books translated into English. The first, Kalpa Imperial--translated by Ursula Le Guin--was selected for the New York Times summer reading list in 2003.
218 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2005
7 people are currently reading
328 people want to read
About the author
Angélica Gorodischer
105 books173 followersAngélica Beatriz del Rosario Arcal de Gorodischer es una multipremiada autora argentina reconocida como una de las figuras femeninas más importantes dentro de la Ciencia-Ficción y Fantasía iberoamericana, aunque ha trabajado otros géneros.
Traducida al alemán y al inglés (en este idioma la traductora fue Ursula K. Le Guin), es autora de una docena de novelas y multitud de relatos.
Traducida al alemán y al inglés (en este idioma la traductora fue Ursula K. Le Guin), es autora de una docena de novelas y multitud de relatos.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 23, 2020
Un libro para buenos lectores, con una estructura impecable. He disfrutado mucho de cómo escribe y me ha dado, también, muchas ideas para escribir. Se consigue en soporte virtual en Eudeba editorial.
August 27, 2025
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: Jaguars' Tomb is a novel in three parts, written by three interconnected characters. Part one, "Hidden Variables" by María Celina Igarzábal, is narrated by Bruno Seguer. Seguer in turn is the author of the second part, "Recounting from Zero" ("Contar desde zero"), in which Evelynne Harrington, author of the third, is a central character. Harrington, finally, is the author of "Uncertainty" ("La incertidumbre"), whose protagonist is the dying Igarzábal. Each of the three parts revolves around the octagonal room that is alternately the jaguars' tomb, the central space of the torture center, and the heart of an abandoned house that hides an adulterous affair.
The novel, by Argentine author Angélica Gorodischer, is both an intriguing puzzle and a meditation on how to write about, or through, violence, injustice, and loss. Among Gorodischer's many novels, Jaguars' Tomb most directly addresses the abductions and disappearances that occurred under the Argentine military dictatorship of 1976-83. This is the fourth of Gorodischer's books translated into English. The first, Kalpa Imperial—translated by Ursula Le Guin—was selected for the New York Times summer reading list in 2003.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Y'all remember me talking up Kalpa Imperial , right? The link is above for refreshing of memories. This novel, made up of three novellas "by" three writer-characters, id like that collection of SFF stories in the sense that she is using the narrative form to make a bigger point that really means more than than it would if she just sat down and typed out the story.
Oh dear. That sounded like a rush to the exit.
The Dirty War against the Argentine military junta's enemies started almost fifty years ago...officially...but it won't really be over while there are survivors bearing scars. If you're wonderig how long that will be...read A FLOWER TRAVELED IN MY BLOOD: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children. These are nation-defining scars inflicted in the name of...what, greed? cruelty for its own sake?...these questions are the ones Author Gorodischer treats in these three novellas.
I think a lot of people, hearing that a novel is woven of shorter story-strands, aren't inclined to do more than nod absently that they've heard the description. Add another layer of artifice, fictional authors telling these fictional stories, and *click* out go the lights as brains head upstairs to bed.
Wake up now, drink some of Author Gorodischer's strong, bitter coffee, and think about what could cause so much pain that the story must be wrapped in a big layer cake of artifice in order to bring the impact down to bearable levels. That is the case with these intertwined tales of the horrors of life under a government that kidnaps, tortures, and kills its citizens who are guilty of nothing but disagreeing with the very government that is committing these horrible acts.
Layering, padding, defenses against the mere idea of direct head-on confrontation with the terrible subject...well, yeah, I think that would never be less than a helpful coping strategy. And as the layers are constructed they reveal what they were made to obscure. The very title of the novel is an uneasy nod to the avoided reality. There are many things this technique does well, eg making the empty space the center of the story's arc much as the absence of los desaparecidos is the center of those left behind's lives.
Like any technique, though, every benefit has a cost. Avoidance of difficult topics can end up with the literary equivalent of avoidant personality disorder. The bitterness of self-judgment, the harsh inner gaze that spotlights things not done, the Inquisition-level blaming of everyone especially the self for things not reasonably in their control, all so reasonably justified and so irrational on examination, all here. It's not an easy read though it's written in lovely prose. The depths of loss and rage...these are never easy topics to treat. It's greatly to Author Gorodischer's credit that she does not use her padding as a cop-out, a way of prettifying horrifying behavior.
It is inevitable that splitting the story into three narratives by three different people who are all writing about each other does not create deep investment in each character. While I can see this as a deliberate choice made to reinforce the central absence as painful, it also makes the read more effortful in the moment. I read this book to about the 33% mark during the Biden administration's extraordinary rendition kerfuffle (he'd publicly opposed it in 2007 but it continued as fact if not policy). It felt artificial, a stylistic tic to me then.
Come January 2025 and Kilmar Abrego García's travails, the idea seemed much more immediate, indeed urgent, to grapple with. I found myself unwilling to confront the horrors head-on, needing some space between myself and the topic's hyperreality.
Rather makes Author Gorodischer's case for her technical choice for her.
I'm hoping this desire to see what the behaviors we are tacitly, by silence, condoning today cost an earlier generation of a society that did then what we are doing now cost them in psychic suffering.
The Publisher Says: Jaguars' Tomb is a novel in three parts, written by three interconnected characters. Part one, "Hidden Variables" by María Celina Igarzábal, is narrated by Bruno Seguer. Seguer in turn is the author of the second part, "Recounting from Zero" ("Contar desde zero"), in which Evelynne Harrington, author of the third, is a central character. Harrington, finally, is the author of "Uncertainty" ("La incertidumbre"), whose protagonist is the dying Igarzábal. Each of the three parts revolves around the octagonal room that is alternately the jaguars' tomb, the central space of the torture center, and the heart of an abandoned house that hides an adulterous affair.
The novel, by Argentine author Angélica Gorodischer, is both an intriguing puzzle and a meditation on how to write about, or through, violence, injustice, and loss. Among Gorodischer's many novels, Jaguars' Tomb most directly addresses the abductions and disappearances that occurred under the Argentine military dictatorship of 1976-83. This is the fourth of Gorodischer's books translated into English. The first, Kalpa Imperial—translated by Ursula Le Guin—was selected for the New York Times summer reading list in 2003.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Y'all remember me talking up Kalpa Imperial , right? The link is above for refreshing of memories. This novel, made up of three novellas "by" three writer-characters, id like that collection of SFF stories in the sense that she is using the narrative form to make a bigger point that really means more than than it would if she just sat down and typed out the story.
Oh dear. That sounded like a rush to the exit.
The Dirty War against the Argentine military junta's enemies started almost fifty years ago...officially...but it won't really be over while there are survivors bearing scars. If you're wonderig how long that will be...read A FLOWER TRAVELED IN MY BLOOD: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children. These are nation-defining scars inflicted in the name of...what, greed? cruelty for its own sake?...these questions are the ones Author Gorodischer treats in these three novellas.
I think a lot of people, hearing that a novel is woven of shorter story-strands, aren't inclined to do more than nod absently that they've heard the description. Add another layer of artifice, fictional authors telling these fictional stories, and *click* out go the lights as brains head upstairs to bed.
Wake up now, drink some of Author Gorodischer's strong, bitter coffee, and think about what could cause so much pain that the story must be wrapped in a big layer cake of artifice in order to bring the impact down to bearable levels. That is the case with these intertwined tales of the horrors of life under a government that kidnaps, tortures, and kills its citizens who are guilty of nothing but disagreeing with the very government that is committing these horrible acts.
Layering, padding, defenses against the mere idea of direct head-on confrontation with the terrible subject...well, yeah, I think that would never be less than a helpful coping strategy. And as the layers are constructed they reveal what they were made to obscure. The very title of the novel is an uneasy nod to the avoided reality. There are many things this technique does well, eg making the empty space the center of the story's arc much as the absence of los desaparecidos is the center of those left behind's lives.
Like any technique, though, every benefit has a cost. Avoidance of difficult topics can end up with the literary equivalent of avoidant personality disorder. The bitterness of self-judgment, the harsh inner gaze that spotlights things not done, the Inquisition-level blaming of everyone especially the self for things not reasonably in their control, all so reasonably justified and so irrational on examination, all here. It's not an easy read though it's written in lovely prose. The depths of loss and rage...these are never easy topics to treat. It's greatly to Author Gorodischer's credit that she does not use her padding as a cop-out, a way of prettifying horrifying behavior.
It is inevitable that splitting the story into three narratives by three different people who are all writing about each other does not create deep investment in each character. While I can see this as a deliberate choice made to reinforce the central absence as painful, it also makes the read more effortful in the moment. I read this book to about the 33% mark during the Biden administration's extraordinary rendition kerfuffle (he'd publicly opposed it in 2007 but it continued as fact if not policy). It felt artificial, a stylistic tic to me then.
Come January 2025 and Kilmar Abrego García's travails, the idea seemed much more immediate, indeed urgent, to grapple with. I found myself unwilling to confront the horrors head-on, needing some space between myself and the topic's hyperreality.
Rather makes Author Gorodischer's case for her technical choice for her.
I'm hoping this desire to see what the behaviors we are tacitly, by silence, condoning today cost an earlier generation of a society that did then what we are doing now cost them in psychic suffering.
September 28, 2023
This was not an easy book to read, and I struggled with it at first. The writing styles here reminded me of Virginia Woolf and Bruno Schulz. The translator's introduction in this edition was excellent and helped me make sense out of the poetic writing and obtuse narrative structure.
This novel is broken into three novellas, which fit together like a puzzle: Author A is writing a novel about B, who is writing a novel about C, who is writing a novel about A writing a novel about B... and around we go. This premise provided the scaffolding for Gorodischer's melancholic meditation on the impossibility--and necessity--of writing about trauma, be that trauma an event in the writer's own life or someone else's, to be interpreted or imagined by the writer. Understanding the historical context of La Guerra Sucia in Argentina and the history of los desaparecidos is essential to making any sense of Jaguars' Tomb.
I would recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in Argentine history or anyone who is curious to read an intricate meditation on writing. It is a difficult read to be sure, but rewarding as the layers unfold and the various perspectives shift into focus.
This novel is broken into three novellas, which fit together like a puzzle: Author A is writing a novel about B, who is writing a novel about C, who is writing a novel about A writing a novel about B... and around we go. This premise provided the scaffolding for Gorodischer's melancholic meditation on the impossibility--and necessity--of writing about trauma, be that trauma an event in the writer's own life or someone else's, to be interpreted or imagined by the writer. Understanding the historical context of La Guerra Sucia in Argentina and the history of los desaparecidos is essential to making any sense of Jaguars' Tomb.
I would recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in Argentine history or anyone who is curious to read an intricate meditation on writing. It is a difficult read to be sure, but rewarding as the layers unfold and the various perspectives shift into focus.
May 31, 2023
An unbeatably meta-delicious set up that is not delivered on in any meaningful way: one author writes a character, who then writes a character, who then writes a character who is the first author, all of them hiding and hating in their own ways.
The synchronicities are few and blatant, but the style development from character to character is so minimal that there is very little interconnectedness or depth revealed in the layering, at all. Mostly, the story was so obfuscated and the style so laborious that it was all too cute -- every paragraph could've been the vague opening starter to a story that got filled in later, but since it rarely did flesh out, it was just constant bombardment with half-narratives and gestures. Everything hidden and smirking.
The synchronicities are few and blatant, but the style development from character to character is so minimal that there is very little interconnectedness or depth revealed in the layering, at all. Mostly, the story was so obfuscated and the style so laborious that it was all too cute -- every paragraph could've been the vague opening starter to a story that got filled in later, but since it rarely did flesh out, it was just constant bombardment with half-narratives and gestures. Everything hidden and smirking.
April 27, 2023
A messy set of nested stories where Writer Character A writes Writer Character B who writes Writer Character C who is writing Writer Character A. Each story features an octagonal room and deals with acts of disappearance, escape, and murder. Definitely a book I read more for the prose than the plot. Don’t be intimidated by the initial emotional and densely written barrage that is the first section.
October 12, 2023
Easily one of my 3 favorite books now, a true highpoint of the medium, I’ve purposely read Gorodischer’s work slower to savor the ride and technique and characters she brings and the sheer inventiveness, heartbreak, subversion, and love this story revels in is a pure joy, I can’t overstate how many wins she owns in “Tomb” or recommend it highly enough.
December 7, 2018
Me costó muchísimo seguir el hilo de la (las?) historia(s).
July 10, 2015
Nunca jamas hubiera adivinado el propósito de este libro (el cual debo decir que fue muy incomodo de manipular). Mejor dicho, el propósito del escritor dentro de la novela.
Debería ser mas clara… Esta es una historia dentro de otra historia. La primera historia es la que me sorprendió y trata sobre un escritor, podríamos decir melancólico, que quiere escribir la historia que podría haber tenido su hija si es que estuviera viva. La segunda es la historia “imaginaria” de la hija.
Lo impactante son los pensamientos que tiene este padre con respecto a como se murió su hija. Porque murió de una de las formas mas horribles de como puede morir una persona. Violada y asesinada.
Quiero ver sin haber visto jamas, quiero oír sin haber oído nunca, quiero estar en donde no he estado ni estaré; quiero estar en la casa de ella, de Gabriela, en la que todavía se la huele, en su dormitorio cuando ella dormía, cuando jugaba, cuando hablaba con amigas, cuando lloraba ¿porque no habría de llorar? siempre a esa edad se llora; cuando estudiaba, cuando entraron mientras ella trataba de abrir el cierre del collar de cuentas celestes porque acababa de llegar y se iba a cambiar, sacarse el vestido, y las sandalias, cuando se la llevaron, a la rastra se la llevaron mientras ella gritaba y uno de ellos le pegaba un puñetazo en el estomago a Gabriela que se deslizaba contra la pared hasta el suelo incapaz de respirar, mover las manos, preguntar, pedir auxilio, lo que fuera aunque todo era ya inútil. Quiero que me aplasten las botas como la aplastaron a ella contra el piso del auto en el que se la llevaban y que me peguen en la cabeza hasta reventarme los tímpanos y en el vientre hasta hacerme vomitar y sangrar por la boca. Y nada de eso me lava de arrepentimientos ni de remordimientos ni de recriminaciones, nada.
Debería ser mas clara… Esta es una historia dentro de otra historia. La primera historia es la que me sorprendió y trata sobre un escritor, podríamos decir melancólico, que quiere escribir la historia que podría haber tenido su hija si es que estuviera viva. La segunda es la historia “imaginaria” de la hija.
Lo impactante son los pensamientos que tiene este padre con respecto a como se murió su hija. Porque murió de una de las formas mas horribles de como puede morir una persona. Violada y asesinada.
Quiero ver sin haber visto jamas, quiero oír sin haber oído nunca, quiero estar en donde no he estado ni estaré; quiero estar en la casa de ella, de Gabriela, en la que todavía se la huele, en su dormitorio cuando ella dormía, cuando jugaba, cuando hablaba con amigas, cuando lloraba ¿porque no habría de llorar? siempre a esa edad se llora; cuando estudiaba, cuando entraron mientras ella trataba de abrir el cierre del collar de cuentas celestes porque acababa de llegar y se iba a cambiar, sacarse el vestido, y las sandalias, cuando se la llevaron, a la rastra se la llevaron mientras ella gritaba y uno de ellos le pegaba un puñetazo en el estomago a Gabriela que se deslizaba contra la pared hasta el suelo incapaz de respirar, mover las manos, preguntar, pedir auxilio, lo que fuera aunque todo era ya inútil. Quiero que me aplasten las botas como la aplastaron a ella contra el piso del auto en el que se la llevaban y que me peguen en la cabeza hasta reventarme los tímpanos y en el vientre hasta hacerme vomitar y sangrar por la boca. Y nada de eso me lava de arrepentimientos ni de remordimientos ni de recriminaciones, nada.
November 6, 2008
"¿Quién ha visto alguna vez cajas chinas?"
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews