Ocio and Veteranos del panico, the two novellas that comprise this volume, offer ample evidence of the technique, sensibility, audacity, and honesty that characterize the work of Fabian Casas, one of the most exciting voices in contemporary Latin American fiction. In Ocio, the author gazes into the past, drawing new emotions from familiar places and people--the old neighborhood and the family and friends of a teenager coming up in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Bodeo during the 1980s--with a poetic language full of metaphor. Veteranos del panico, a supremely autobiographical piece of fiction, for its emphasis on the concept of home. The story tracks the protagonist's life as he attempts to recover his family history, a history that begins with his grandparents and continues with his parents and their childhood and adolescence. In doing so, he unravels the thread of a familial chronicle, becoming party to a history he did not witness firsthand. Both stories share a richness of language that will ensnare readers.
Ocio | 
