'Perhaps that moment had been exceptional, but still, I felt alive. That pressure on my chest means being alive.' Forty-nine, with a kind face, no serious ailments (apart from varicose veins on his ankles), a good salary and three moody children, widowed accountant Martin Santome is about to retire. He assumes he'll take up gardening, or the guitar, or whatever retired people do. What he least expects is to fall passionately in love with his shy young employee Laura Avellaneda. As they embark upon an affair, happy and irresponsible, Martin begins to feel the weight of his quiet existence lift...

An extraordinary story of love and exile, from one of the great masters of the Latin American novel 'Having news from you is like opening a window' Santiago is trapped. Taken political prisoner in Montevideo after a brutal military coup, he can do nothing but write letters to his family, and try to stay sane. Far away in a different country, his father tries to adjust to life in exile, his nine-year-old daughter marvels at the big city, and his beautiful, careworn wife finds herself irresistibly drawn to another man, as day by day Santiago edges closer to freedom. Told with...

Poslední sbírka krátkých povídek uruguayského autora. Vyrozumíme brzy, že hranicí mezi budoucností a minulostí je tu smrt, ač pohledy do budoucna to nejsou černé, ale ani úplně smířené a jen nenápadně rekapitulující. Kdo si ostatně může dovolit o smrti mluvit? Je k tomu věk kvalifikací? Smrt tu má podstatné slovo, ale přece spíše než budoucnost sledujeme to, co se děje teď a tady. Neboť dokud se budoucnost naší minulosti nestane skutečností, nevíme o ní nic.
Svým civilním stylem a přívětivým vypravěčstvím byl Benedetti celý život...