Drawing on a meticulous study of novels and visual representations published in Venezuela at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, Nathalie Bouzaglo confronts this apparent contradiction with admirable subtlety in a book whose conclusions offer new ways of rethinking the continent’s literature as a whole. Far from being a mere anecdotal element, a narrative device of minor consequence, adultery—Bouzaglo proposes—takes on an investigative potential. In these novels, it functions ideologically as a disruptive force, an adulterant that destabilizes national certainties.

While rooted in Venezuelan literature, Nathalie Bouzaglo’s finely tuned critical reflection opens new avenues of inquiry for all of Latin America’s literature of the period. She invites us to revisit a moment we once believed had been entirely accounted for. That is no small feat.

—Sylvia Molloy (translated from the Spanish by Archivo Venezuela)

Rafael Osío Cabrices tackles this question from three perspectives: that of a journalist who witnessed key events and had access to their main actors; that of a migrant whose distance allows him to see his homeland through a different lens; and that of a member of the last generation to experience democracy and believe in its promises for the future.

Faced with the unsettling questions raised by this anatomy lesson, Osío turns on the time machine and retraces the storms that shattered Venezuela’s oil-driven dreams and upended its utopias. After this journey, he reveals what Venezuelans still hold onto for the future: the hope of building something new from the remnants of what never was.

The result feels like an unforgettable conversation—rich in nuance—with a well-informed friend who dismantles myths and offers rare insight into what it feels like when history barges in through the window and upends your world. (Tropico Absoluto, translated from Spanish by Archivo Venezuela).