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Canon de cámara oscura

Darkroom Canon | Seix Barral, 2025

The best of Enrique Vila-Matas returns to the style of the celebrated A Brief History of Portable Literature with a book about books, about the impossibility of writing, and about the ultimate meaning of literature.

A novel as erudite as it is ironic, offering a unique journey through a light and portable library of essential books while exploring themes such as the foreign voices that coexist within us or the infinite absence left by those we love—”the same absence that Eurydice left Orpheus, from which many believe writing was born.”

Vidal Escabia, the protagonist of this story, has selected 71 books in a darkroom of his house with the idea of writing a displaced, untimely, and unconventional canon over the course of 71 days—a dissident alternative to official canons. Each morning, he randomly selects one of these books and brings a fragment to light for his Canon. However, what he uncovers in his readings influences both his life and his writing. Suspicions arise about whether the author of the Darkroom Canon has an android origin and is a survivor of Barcelona’s Denver-7, or whether, on the contrary, he is using the canon to give meaning to his life in the face of the boundless love he feels—beyond time and space—for his absent daughter.

Canon de cámara oscura

Darkroom Canon | Seix Barral, 2025

The best of Enrique Vila-Matas returns to the style of the celebrated A Brief History of Portable Literature with a book about books, about the impossibility of writing, and about the ultimate meaning of literature.

A novel as erudite as it is ironic, offering a unique journey through a light and portable library of essential books while exploring themes such as the foreign voices that coexist within us or the infinite absence left by those we love—”the same absence that Eurydice left Orpheus, from which many believe writing was born.”

Vidal Escabia, the protagonist of this story, has selected 71 books in a darkroom of his house with the idea of writing a displaced, untimely, and unconventional canon over the course of 71 days—a dissident alternative to official canons. Each morning, he randomly selects one of these books and brings a fragment to light for his Canon. However, what he uncovers in his readings influences both his life and his writing. Suspicions arise about whether the author of the Darkroom Canon has an android origin and is a survivor of Barcelona’s Denver-7, or whether, on the contrary, he is using the canon to give meaning to his life in the face of the boundless love he feels—beyond time and space—for his absent daughter.

Montevideo

Montevideo | Seix-Barral, 2022

Esta bruma insensata

This Senseless Fog | Seix Barral, 2019

Cabinet d’amateur, an oblique novel

Cabinet d'Amateur, an Oblique Novel | Whitechapel, 2019

Impón tu suerte

Try Your Luck | Círculo de Tiza, 2018

Mac y su contratiempo

Mac's Problem | Seix Barral, 2017

Marienbad eléctrico

Marienbad Electric | Seix Barral, 2016

Kassel no invita a la lógica

Kassel Does Not Call For Logic | Seix Barral, 2014

Niña

Girl | Alfaguara Infantil, 2013

Fuera de aquí

Away From Here | Galaxia Gutenberg, 2013

Aire de Dylan

Dylan's Air | Seix Barral, 2012

Hijos sin hijos

Children without Children | Anagrama, 1993; PRH/DeBolsillo, 2012

Una vida absolutamente maravillosa. Ensayos selectos

An Absolutely Wonderful Life. Selected Essays | PRH/Debolsillo, 2011

El viajero más lento. El arte de no terminar nada

The slowest traveller. The art of finishing nothing | Anagram, 1992; Seix Barral, 2011

Chet Baker piensa en su arte. Relatos selectos

Chet Baker thinks about his art | RHM - DEBOLSILLO, 2011

En un lugar solitario. Narrativa 1973-1984

In a Lonely Place | RHM - DEBOLSILLO, 2011

Dublinesca

Dublinesque | Seix Barral, 2010; Debolsillo, 2011

Perder teorías

Losing Theories | Seix Barral, 2010. Colección Únicos

Ella era Hemingway / No soy Auster

She was Hemingway, I’m not Auster | Alfabia, 2008

Dietario Voluble

Volatile Diary | Anagrama, 2008; PRH/DeBolsillo, 2016

Exploradores del abismo

Explorers in the Abyss | Anagrama, 2007

Doctor Pasavento + Bastian Schneider

Doctor Pasavento + Bastian Schneider | Anagrama, 2005; PRH/DeBolsillo, 2016; Seix Barral, 2017

El viento ligero en Parma

Light Wind in Parma | México, Sexto Piso, 2004 / España, 2008

París no se acaba nunca

Paris Never Ends | Anagrama, 2004; Seix Barral, 2013; PRH/DeBolsillo, 2014

El mal de Montano

Montano’s Malady | Anagrama, 2002; Seix Barral, 2012; PRH/DeBolsillo, 2013

Bartleby y compañía

Bartleby & Co | Anagrama, 2000; Seix Barral, 2015; PRH/DeBolsillo, 2016

Desde la ciudad nerviosa

From the Restless City | Alfaguara, 2000

El viaje vertical

The Vertical Journey | Anagrama, 1999

Para acabar con los números redondos

In Order to End Up with Round Numbers | Pre-Textos, 1997

Extraña forma de vida

Strange Way of Life | Anagrama, 1997; PRH/DeBolsillo, 2013

Lejos de Veracruz

A Long Way from Veracruz | Anagrama, 1995; PRH/DeBolsillo, 2011

Recuerdos inventados

Invented memories | Anagrama, 1994; Compactos, 2007

Suicidios ejemplares

Exemplary Suicides | Anagrama, 1991; PRH/DeBolsillo, 2015

Una casa para siempre

A House For Ever | Anagrama, 1988 / Compactos, 2002

Historia abreviada de la literatura portátil

A Brief History of Portable Literature | Anagrama, 1985; PRH-DeBolsillo, 2015

Impostura

Imposture | Anagrama, 1984

La asesina ilustrada

An Enlightened Murderess | Tusquets, 1977 / Lengua de Trapo, 1996 / Lumen, illustrated edition, 2005