Patricio Pron
- Argentina
- Zu Gast beim ilb: 2019
The Argentine writer Patricio Pron was born in Rosario in 1975. He studied communications at the Universidad Nacional de Rosario. From 2002 to 2007, he was a Spanish teacher at the University of Göttingen, where he earned his doctorate with a thesis on the Parisian comic book author Copi. Since then, he has lived as a freelance writer and journalist in Madrid.
Pron has published six volumes of short prose and seven novels. »El comienzo de la primavera« (2008; tr: The Beginning of Spring) won the Premio Jaén de Novela and was named one of the five best Spanish-language novels by the Fundación José Manuel Lara. At the center of the novel is Martínez, a young Argentinean who travels to Germany to discuss the translation of one of his books into Spanish with an old philosophy professor close to Heidegger’s circle. The visit turns into a game of mirrors, labyrinths, and misunderstandings between the German past and the elusive present of Argentina. The widely translated novel »El espíritu de mis padres sigue subiendo en la lluvia« (2010; Eng. »My Fathers’ Ghost Is Climbing in the Rain«, 2014) deals with the era of the military junta: After years of studying, a young Argentinean returns home from Germany to his father’s sickbed. In his desk, he discovers clues to the political activities of his parents during the military dictatorship. The supposedly happy family life of his childhood reveals itself to be an illusion. Pron chose an open structure of documents, photographs, memories, and dreams for the novel. The text is rich in quotations and illusions and is stylistically reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges. In »No derrames tus lágrimas por nadie que viva en estas calles« (2016; tr: Don’t Spill Your Tears for Anyone Who Lives on These Streets), a young man investigates the history of his ancestors. Through his research, the grandson of a partisan who disappeared during World War II gradually puts together the puzzle of art, politics, and violence that is connected to a fictitious fascist writers’ congress in Pinerolo in northern Italy in April 1945. Pron’s most recent novel »Mañana tendremos otros nombres« (2019; tr: Tomorrow We Will Have Other Names) is a psychologically precise analysis of a failed love affair and, beyond that, a portrait of a neurotic, universally networked society with its consumer-oriented relation to the relationships of couples.
In 2010 he was voted one of the best Spanish-speaking writers under the age of 35 by the literary magazine »Granta«, in 2016 he was awarded the Premio Cálamo for his oeuvre, and in 2019 he won the Premio Alfaguara de Novela.
El comienzo de la primavera
Mondadori
Barcelona, 2010
Der Geist meiner Väter steigt im Regen auf
Rowohlt
Reinbek, 2013
[Ü: Christian Hansen]
Nosotros caminamos en sueños
Penguin
Madrid, 2013
Vergieß deine Tränen für keinen, der in diesen Straßen lebt
Rowohlt
Reinbek, 2019
[Ü: Christian Hansen]
Mañana tendremos otros nombres
Alfaguara
Madrid, 2019
patriciopron.com