Translation Rights TQE / Dark monotonous blood

Tusquets Editores Prize for Novel 2009

Julio Andrada likes to pass Amancio Alcorta Avenue every day on his way to work, that is, of course, when he drives by himself to his company in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. He enjoys entering the humble lower-class neighborhoods that remind him of his origins, but above all, that remind him of his success climbing the social ladder. One day, while having lunch, Julio overhears the conversation and joking about of some truck drivers regarding the sexual market in one of the neighborhoods on his daily route to work. As he himself will come to admit, that day will be the beginning of the end. Driven by an unknown impulse, Andrada will find himself in his car one evening soliciting the services of Daiana, an adolescent who will cause an uncontrollable desire in him. Julio, an ideal neighbor and businessman, a man worried about his family’s image and the well-being of his community, organizes his double life with coldness and intelligence. Little by little the situation will require fast decision-making and increasingly compromising actions.

A plot dealing with obsession and double morality, passion and social conflict that envelops the main character, a man willing to trespass all limits for an unspeakable relationship, that was awarded the Tusquets Editores Prize for Novel 2009.

“Olguín has managed to size up his country’s immediate reality with a different look… A novel of quick rhythm that recreates the atmosphere of violence and political corruption exuded by the streets of Buenos Aires”. Qué leer

“An excellent novel.” El correo

“A revelation”. Sergi Doria, ABC

Sergio Olguín was born in Buenos Aires in 1967 and studied Arts in the city’s university. He has been working as a journalist since 1984. He founded and directed for several years the cultural magazine V de Vian. He was the co-founder and first director of the cinema magazine El Amante. His articles have been published in newspapers such as Página/12, La Nación, and El País of Montevideo, and he is currently editor of the magazine Lamujerdemivida. He has been the editor of the anthologies Los mejores cuentos argentinos (The Best Argentinean Short Sories, 1999), La selección argentina (The Argentinean Team, 2000), Cross a la mandíbula (Cross to the Jaw, 2000), Perón vuelve. Cuentos sobre el peronismo (Perón Returns. Short Stories about Peronism, 2000), and Escritos con sangre. Cuentos argentinos sobre casos policiales (Written in Blood. Argentinean Short Stories about Police Cases, 2003). In 1998 he published the book of short stories, Las griegas (Greek Women – Vian Ediciones) and in 2002 his first novel, Lanús. Since then, he has published the novel Filo (2003), and the juvenile novels El equipo de los sueños (The Dream Team, 2004), which has been translated into German, French and Italian, and Springfield (2007). Since 2006 he directs the collection of chronicles Andanzas Crónicas in Tusquets Editores Argentina.