A Beautiful Young Woman

Julián López

Translated by Samuel Rutter

Set in the midst of Argentina’s military dictatorship, a poignant and evocative debut novel about family, political violence, and the consequences of dissidence

As political violence escalates around them, a young boy and his single mother live together in an apartment in Buenos Aires — which has recently been taken over by Argentina’s military dictatorship. When the boy returns home one day to find his mother missing (or “disappeared”), the story fractures, and the reader encounters him fully grown, consumed by the burden of his loss, attempting to reconstruct the memory of his mother.

By leaping forward in time, the boy—now a man—subtly gives shape to his mother’s activism, and in the process recasts the memories from his childhood. The result is a stylistically masterful and deeply moving novel marking the English-language debut of one of Argentina’s most promising writers.

JULIÁN LÓPEZ was born in Buenos Aires in 1965. He is a poet, actor, and director of the contemporary Argentine literary association Carne Argentina. A Beautiful Young Woman is his first novel.

SAMUEL RUTTER is a writer and translator from Melbourne, Australia, currently pursuing an MFA at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

A Culture Trip Best Book Release of November 2017!

“[A] heartbreaking and moving reverie. It’s been said that memory is a poet — if so, this novel represents some of its most gorgeous and incandescent work.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“[An] enticing debut novel… This is a detailed, moving meditation on a mother’s imperfect love… Though delicately written, it’s compulsive in its quest, never trying to neaten the messiness of grief.” —Publishers Weekly

“[An] evocative debut… [Lopez] delivers a delicately textured, discomfiting first novel, a fitting tribute to mark 40 years of courageous, peaceful marches conducted by mothers of the disappeared in Buenos Aires.” —Booklist

“A beautifully written story of the love between a mother and son in Buenos Aires, which has been taken over by Argentina’s military dictatorship… It’s a stunning debut about family, violence, and consequences.” —Hello Giggles

“Meditative… sensual, recursive… for readers who especially appreciate when a writer can—in the medium of long and beautiful sentences—reveal to them the idiosyncrasies of their own minds.” —Arkansas International

“A moving story… powerful, celebratory, and loving.” —Laura Cardona, La Nación