The night

Creator: Rodrigo Blanco Calderón

Title: The night

Publisher: Alfaguara

Date: 2016

Language: Spanish

Description: Caracas, 2010. The revolutionary government exploits the energy crisis to decree power outages that, for hours, black out the entire country. During these periods of time, Venezuela seems to regress in history to a new Stone Age that seeps through every crack. Amidst this atmosphere, two friends, a frustrated writer and a psychiatrist accustomed to getting involved in the lives of his patients, discuss a series of crimes that have occurred in the last year. Pedro Álamo, another character in this polyphonic novel, obsessively searches through word games—those he creates and those dreamed up by his admired Darío Lancini—for the key to understanding the unhinged world he lives in. It's as if he were seeking to transform reality into something different by changing the order of its constituent elements, thus trying to find its exact meaning. Literature, rock, dreams, violence, politics, love, absences, and fears intertwine in the minds of the protagonists. They open labyrinths, create crossroads, and produce vital short circuits. With this story in which everything seems to be teetering on the brink of delirium, where present-day Venezuela is reflected in a mirror pierced by apocalyptic shadows, and its inhabitants face the fate that inexorably awaits them; be it the fulfillment of their obsessions or death. (Publisher's synopsis, translated from the Spanish by Archivo Venezuela)

Subject:

Venezuelan literature, contemporary fiction, Caracas, energy crisis, blackouts, political context, revolutionary government, psychological fiction, crime, serial murders, existential crisis, urban life, wordplay, dreams, violence, fear, obsession, friendship, psychiatry, writers, rock music, apocalyptic vision, 21st century literature, Rodrigo Blanco Calderón, social decay, polyphonic novel, reality and meaning, trauma, dystopian fiction

Type: Text

Format: Printed book

Rights: External resource

Relation:

Tags: 21st century literature, apocalyptic vision, blackouts, Caracas, contemporary fiction, crime, dreams, dystopian fiction, energy crisis, existential crisis, fear, Friendship, obsession, political context, polyphonic novel, psychiatry, psychological fiction, reality and meaning, revolutionary government, rock music, Rodrigo Blanco Calderón, serial murders, social decay, trauma, Urban life, Venezuelan literature, violence, wordplay, writers

Citation: Rodrigo Blanco Calderón, The night, Alfaguara, 2016, OCLC: 1456542652 | ISBN: 9788420419459, accessed September 22, 2026, https://archivovenezuela.com/en/items/show/1107

The night

Interview with Rodrigo Blanco Calderón in El País (Spanish)

Publisher's page at Anagrama (Spanish)

Review by Héctor Torres in Letralia (Spanish)

Review by Daniel Gigena in La Nación (Spanish)

WorldCat bibliographic record