Paradise Dogs

Abel Posse (1934–2023) is an Argentine writer and diplomat. Author of novels translated into sixteen languages. The novel “Paradise Dogs” (1983) was awarded the highest literary prize in Latin America – the R. Gallegos Prize. It tells the story of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, but Posse looks at distant events through the lens of magical realism, introducing into the text poetic, fantastic, and surrealistic elements, a play of masks behind which the faces of iconic characters from various eras peek through. The author rejects the notorious “reconstruction of events,” considering it more important what never makes it into official documents and chronicles, serving as the true engine of great deeds. In the novel, this role is played by two genius youths, united by great love – the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, without whose help Christopher Columbus, a Jew and a Catholic, a hero and a slave trader, a prophet and an avaricious seeker of gold, would not have discovered new lands, embodying all the contradictions inherent in the Western man.