«There at the end is death, but don’t be afraid. Hold the watch tight with one hand, take the stem with two fingers, and rotate it smoothly. Now another installment of time opens, trees spread their leaves, boats run races, like a fan time continues filling with itself, and from it the eruption of air, the breezes of the earth, the shadow of a woman, the sweet smell of bread.» Instructions for winding a watch.
... and the literature of Julio Cortázar
Twenty-five years after the death of the author of Rayuela, Libros del Zorro Rojo invites you to discover its illustrated editions of Julio Cortázar’s work.
The Pursuer (+ info)
Is one of Julio Cortázar’s greatest literary achievements and a classic of 20th century literature. With a magisterially-handled existential background, the story describes the final days of Johnny Carter, a virtuoso saxophonist whose life takes place on the knife-edge between lucidity and self-destruction. The great illustrator José Muñoz has been able to interpret with extraordinary talent the depth of this fiction in which jazz, nights of insomnia and Paris in the Fifties are the framework for a story beyond compare.
Meeting (+ info)
Meeting is one of the key narratives in Cortázar’s political work, recreating the period when Ernesto Guevara fought as a revolutionary soldier after disembarking at Granma on the coast of Cuba. An epic, moving tale, masterfully illustrated by Enrique Breccia, who, like Cortázar, has captured the full human dimension of Che.
The Bear’s Discourse (+ info)
For little ones, the children’s book The Bear’s Discourse, illustrated by Emilio Urberuaga, which Cortázar wrote specifically for two children in 1952. The bear in this story lives in the ventilation ducts of a building, and during the night observes the strange world of people. Taking the strange noises of the night, Cortázar was able to create a tale full of delight, capable of scaring away fear.
