Norman Thomas Di Giovanni – författare

“The drunkard who comes out with an absurd order, the dreamer who suddenly wakes and with his bare hands strangles the woman sleeping beside him – are they perhaps not carrying out one of the Company’s secret decisions? These silent workings, so like those of God, give rise to all manner of speculation.”The affairs of Babylon are dictated by a lottery. Discreetly administered by a mysterious and seemingly omnipotent Company, the lottery can elevate citizens to positions of wealth and power or condemn them to the most shameful punishments. Taking this fantastical conceit as its starting point, Jorge Luis Borges’s short story is a characteristically brilliant achievement – a haunting mediation on the nature of chance, paranoia and divinity.Eris Gems make available in the form of beautifully produced saddle-stitched booklets a series of outstanding short works of fiction and non-fiction.

A collection of essays on Jorge Luis Borges by his long-time friend and collaborator.Jorge Luis Borges – Argentine poet, essayist, and short-story writer – is widely considered one of the giants of 20th-century world literature.Norman Thomas di Giovanni worked alongside Borges for a number of years creating English translations of his work, the only translations personally overseen by Borges himself. In The Lesson of the Master, a memoir and essays, he writes about his time with Borges but also offers us a unique insight on the man and his work.It is an indispensable volume for Borges readers and his growing legion of students and scholars.

A collection of essays on Jorge Luis Borges by his long-time friend and collaborator.Jorge Luis Borges - Argentine poet, essayist, and short-story writer - is widely considered one of the giants of 20th-century world literature.Norman Thomas di Giovanni worked alongside Borges for a number of years creating English translations of his work, the only translations personally overseen by Borges himself. In The Lesson of the Master, a memoir and essays, he writes about his time with Borges but also offers us a unique insight on the man and his work.It is an indispensable volume for Borges readers and his growing legion of students and scholars.

A biography of Borges, by his translator.Jorge Luis Borges, known as Georgie to his friends, married Elsa Astete Millán in 1967. Borges was sixty-eight years old at the time of the wedding; Elsa, a widow,with a son in his twenties, was eleven years younger.It proved to be a tempestuous and eventful marriage that would leave an indelible mark on the remainder of Borges’ life, but their relationship has been largely glossed over by previous biographers. This is because the one person who knew all the details has refused to speak about it.Until now.Norman Thomas di Giovanni worked with Borges in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in Buenos Aires from late 1967 to 1972 and thereafter sporadically until Borges’s death in 1986. During their first period together di Giovanni spent more time with the couple than did almost anyone else. He was privy to the private side of their relationship and to its sudden decline. It was di Giovanni who helped the demoralized Borges by organizing and arranging his divorce and at the same time rescuing his library and smuggling him out of Buenos Aires to avoid the wrath of Elsa and her lawyers.The book is based on the author’s extensive collection of original material in the form of diaries, notebooks, letters, manuscripts, and photographs, most of which has never before been seen. It provides a unique insight into one of the few true geniuses of literature.

Borges -- Argentine poet, essayist, and short-story writer, whose tales of fantasy and dream-worlds are classics of the 20th-century world literature - was profoundly influenced by European culture, English literature, and thinkers such as Berkeley. Since his death, Borges has been inducted into the world literary canon through the efforts of a number of influential critics and the Borges estate. Central to this project has been the publication of a group of grand volumes whose greatest achievement has been to make available in English works that had previously remained obscure, even in Spanish. The Lesson of the Master, a memoir and essays, is an indispensable work for Borges readers and his growing legion of students and scholars. Di Giovanni was the only translator to have Borges to hand on a daily basis to contradict or authorize his work. In addition, di Giovanni is not burdened with an over-reverence for his subject but is on the contrary playful, robust and witty. The Lesson of the Master is an essential illumination of one of the great masters of twentieth-century literature.