Product details
- ISBN 9781804272350
- Dimensions: 125 x 197mm
- Publication Date: 23 Apr 2026
- Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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In August 1939, a ship flying the Polish flag docked in Buenos Aires. On board was a delegation of businessmen, diplomats and journalists. Days later, the captain received orders to return home with all crew and passengers in light of the imminent outbreak of the Second World War. But one man, fascinated by the city, chose to stay at the very last minute. Thus began the unexpected twenty-four-year Argentine exile of one of the twentieth century’s major writers: Witold Gombrowicz. Drawing on his writings and interviews with surviving disciples, writers and scholars, Mercedes Halfon’s Outsider Everywhere traces Gombrowicz’s Argentine years in elegant, pared-back prose, and composes a vivid account of mid-century bohemia in Buenos Aires. Brilliantly translated by Rahul Bery, Mercedes Halfon’s Outsider Everywhere is a gripping portrait of a literary figure on the margins who rose to prominence late in life to become ‘one of the greatest novelists of our century’ (Milan Kundera).
Mercedes Halfon was born in Buenos Aires. She has published three novels, six poetry collections and one work of non-fiction. With Laura Citarella, she directed the film Las poetas visitan a Juana Bignozzi, which won the Best Director Award at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival and the Silver Dove Award at the DOK Leipzig Festival. She curated the theatrical cycle ‘Invocaciones’, held at the Centro Cultural San Martín and the Teatro Nacional Cervantes. She teaches in the Writing Arts program at the Universidad Nacional de las Artes and writes for the Radar supplement of the newspaper Página/12, among other outlets. Her most recent work is the literary biography Outsider Everywhere: Witold Gombrowicz in Argentina, her first book to appear in English.
