Traveler of the Century

"Good readers will find something that can be found only in great literature, the kind written by real poets, a literature that dares to venture into the dark with open eyes and that keeps its eyes open no matter what . . . The literature of the twenty-first century will belong to Neuman and a few of his blood brothers." —Roberto Bolaño

"Traveler of the Century has already achieved impressive things for its young author in Spain and elsewhere, but this by no means guarantees its success in the litmus test of the English-speaking world, famously resistant to literature in translation. We cannot predict how this book will be received in the months and years to come, but there is little doubt in my mind that it deserves its place in the sun, as a work of true beauty and scintillating intelligence by a writer of prodigious talents. On the evidence of Traveler of the Century, we might well be convinced by Roberto Bolaño's much-vaunted prediction that the literature of the 21st century will belong to Neuman and a handful of his blood brothers. Whatever one's opinion of such elevated claims, books as stimulating, erudite, and humane as this do not come along very often." —Richard Gwyn, The Independent

"There are moments here of exhilarating beauty [in Traveler of the Century] . . . Andrés Neuman writes about history and literature and the relation between them with an intelligence that his American contemporaries cannot match. His first book in English must not be his last." —Michael Gorra, The New Republic

"An exceptional, fun, mature novel from a writer wise beyond his years." —The Guardian (UK)
"Traveller of the Century takes on big ideas, and does so with an acuity that raises it to the level of great literature."—Michael Patrick Brady, Boston Globe

"Neuman is one of the rare writers who can distill the most complex human emotions with apparent effortlessness. Bolaño's prophecy seems to have come true: Andrés Neuman has transcended the boundaries of geography, time, and language to become one of the most significant writers of the early twenty-first century." —Alex McElroy, Music and Literature
"Traveler of the Century is astonishingly complex in its theological, metaphysical and scientific interests . . . Reading the book, I was mesmerized by Neuman's attention to historical detail and his patience with the circumvolutions of the human mind . . . I love this book, and not only because of its melodic cadence, superbly rendered by translators Nick Caistor and Lorenza García . . . Neuman, an Argentine writer, has given us a lesson on how to transcend what Borges called ‘our provincialism'—the obsession with looking at our immediate environment as the only explanation of who we are: He has written a book about the world-less world of ideas." —Ilan Stavans, The Jewish Daily Forward

"The novel flirts with genre and style, oscillating between romance, thriller, classic historical fiction, poetry, magic realism, and epistolary forms. Ultimately, though, Traveler of the Century is a love story . . . Hans and Sophie's amorous rendezvous are rendered with the couple wrapped in collaborative translation as their affections and their shared passion for language become one." —Ben Kupstas, The L Magazine

"[With Traveler of the Century] Neuman has achieved the dream of every novelist: the Total Novel, a venture accomplished only by major authors like Tolstoy, Musil, and Faulkner." —Miguel García-Posada, Abc (Spain)

"One of the best novels that I have read in a long time." —Santos Sanz Villanueva, Mercurio (Spain)

"The work of a master of narrative art." —José RiÇo Direitinho, Público (Portugal)

"[Neuman's] Wandernburg is as mobile and conceptual as a Calvino city, as metaphorical as a Borges country, as cheerful as García Márquez's Macondo . . . Neuman, with Traveler of the Century, has multiplied the literary language and created a classic." —Daria Galateria, La Repubblica (Italy)

" A masterpiece . . . Neuman is not only brilliant news for Latin American literature, but for European literature as well." —Maarten Steenmeijer, Volkskrant (Netherlands)

"Neuman was singled out for praise by Roberto Bolaño and it's easy to see why: like that late author, Neuman combines love and intrigue with serious intellectual engagement. A novel of ideas somewhere between Kafka's The Castle and Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, Neuman's English-language debut is a rich deconstruction of the competing currents of history, less a postmodernist pastiche than proof that modernism is still alive in the Spanish-speaking world." —Publishers Weekly

"Imaginatively grafting twenty-first-century literary sensibilities onto solid nineteenth-century roots, Neuman's first novel to appear in English is a rare and delightful masterpiece: a touching love story with big things to say." —Brendan Driscoll, Booklist (starred review)