• For Isabel: A Mandala
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Archipelago Books

For Isabel: A Mandala

For Isabel: A Mandala

by Antonio Tabucchi, translated from the Italian by Elizabeth Harris

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Available as E-Book Italian Literature
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Isabel disappeared many years ago. Tadeus Slowacki, a dead Polish writer, has returned to Lisbon from a star in order to learn the truth about her. Rumors abound: Isabel died in prison under Salazar’s regime, or perhaps was never arrested at all. As Tadeus interviews one old acquaintance of hers after the next, a chameleon-like portrait of a young, ideological woman emerges, ultimately bringing Tadeus on a metaphysical journey across continents and through time. Constructed in the form of a mandala, For Isabel is the spiraling search for an enigma, an investigation into time and existence, the power of words, and the limits of the senses. In this posthumous work, Tabucchi creates an ingenious narrative, a whimsical, cosmic detective novel tracing circles around a lost woman and the ultimate inaccessible truth.

Additional Book Information

Series: Archipelago Books
ISBN: 9780914671800
Pages: 144
Publication Date:

Praise

Tabucchi creates an intricate web that connects past to present, dream-life to waking. The book is filled with evocative images that seem to float free of mere plot constraints [...] Harris carries the delicate magic of consciousness from Italian into English with deceptive ease. She works with admirable precision to capture the voices of the different speakers and the details of the shifting context, yet she never sacrifices the dreamy texture of the writing.
—Geoffrey Brock, Peter Constantine, and Sarah Stickney, 2018 Italian Prose in Translation Award

To find one’s way through For Isabel is certainly not easy, but it is rewarding, and its joyful confusion always rests firmly on the edge of genius, ready to be found.
—Samuel Graydon, The Times Literary Supplement

[A] detective story, a fable of sorts, a tour of European cities and a series of wild and eccentric characters... It’s a cliché to say it’s about the journey instead of the destination, but For Isabel finds a clever way to say it. 'Just think of me as someone who searches,' Tadeus says. And throughout the novel, the search is satisfying.
—GQ

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