Iosi Havilio was born in Buenos Aires in 1974. Open Door is his first novel. His second novel is Estocolmo (Stockholm). Originally published in Argentina, both have now been issued in Spain. Beth Fowler was born in Inverness in 1980 and lives in Glasgow. She has spent time in Chile as an English teacher and is now a full-time translator. In 2010 she won the inaugural Harvill Secker Young Translators' Prize.

About the Author

Born in Buenos Aires in 1974, Iosi Havilio is creating waves in and beyond Argentina. His work has been praised by top Argentine writers and critics including Rodolfo Fogwill and Beatriz Sarlo. Open Door, Havilio’s first novel, has been translated into English and Italian. His second novel is Estocolmo (Stockholm) and his third is Paradises. All three are now published in both Argentina and Spain. Drawing comparisons with writers as diverse as Camus and Houellebecq, critics agree only that Havilio has one of the most unique voices in literature today.

Reviews

'Look out for Open Door by the much-praised Iosi Havilio.' Boyd Tonkin, The Independent 'Iosi Havilio's remarkable first novel brings news of an intriguing world' Martin Schifino, The Independent -------- 'With minimalist beauty and exquisite strangeness, Iosi Havilio offers a mesmerising addition to the literature of solitude.' Chloe Aridjis -------- 'An ambiguous tale that verges on dark comedy - With skill and subtlety, the novel hints that a whole society might labour under an illusion of liberty.' The Economist -------- 'Deliberately unshowy, so that plot twists can unfold in the quietest ways.' Fatema Ahmed, Prospect -------- 'There is a lot of sex and violence in Open Door, but it is never gratuitous. - You have in your hands a masterpiece.' Oscar Guardiola-Rivera -------- 'There's no spoiling Open Door, Iosi Havilio's enigmatic first novel - readers will have a hard time leaving Open Door.' The Revew of Contemporary Fiction -------- 'A moving and highly original novel. A good translation is one that convinces as a work in its own right. That is what we get here.' Margaret Jull Costa, In Other Words (journal of the British Centre for Literary Translation) -------- 'Havilio handles the narrator's listlessness with remarkable dexterity and maintains the reader's attention throughout - a novel which will flourish under many re-readings.' Annabella Massey, Cadaverine -------- 'Open Door really surprised me, it doesn't obey any of the laws of reading, it feels like it sprang out of nowhere.' Beatriz Sarlo, Perfil -------- 'Open Door is not a choral novel but a series of solitary songs sung in intimate keys. It contains a tale to mull over, a story not easy to forget.' El Pais -------- 'Living, some say, is much easier than thinking about life. This seems to be the almost unconscious guiding force that drives the heroine of Open Door, Iosi Havilio's first book; a sober, restrained novel through which his mature craft shines.' Susana Rosana, Clarin -------- 'His opera prima touches nerves in the literature and history of his country, themes such as absence, identity and the conflict between city and country; but the style is unusual, a virtuoso display of muted prose. [...] Havilio may well be an attentive reader of Camus: a barely lyrical phrase such as "I flop onto my back in the grass and the sky renders me speechless" recalls The Outsider. [...] The internal variety, the technical command, the originality of the setting and the freshness of the voice are all worthy of mention.' Martin Schifino, Revista del Libro -------- 'Open Door is a confusing, bewildering, riveting book; a paen, of sorts, to both the pursuit of solitude and the futility of that pursuit.' Eleutherophobia -------- 'The story, despite its setting in peaceful, rural Argentina, takes twists and turns, sways between sanity and insanity, between the want for peace and calm and the search for excitement, and always circles around the void of the big question: what happened to Aida?' Rebecca Dewald, Books of the Year 2013, Glasgow Review of Books -------- 'Havilio is a clever writer but he doesn't forget that, first and foremost, good writing must be readable and enjoyable. This novel is both.' The Lone Reader 'This surreal novel is both dense enough and short enough to warrant re-readings and will especially appeal to fans of the TV series Twin Peaks.' Publishers Weekly -------- 'Open Door includes two of my favorite subjects in literature: Argentina and insane asylums.' Three Percent -------- 'It's not a difficult read, the translation is excellent and the language is used simply, to create a visual landscape which shifts under your feet, which you can't trust and need to consider carefully in different ways - For such a simple book, it holds some serious profundity' Gareth Buchaillard-Davies, metaliterature --------