Сесар Айра: Shantytown

Maxi, a middle-class, directionless ox of a young man who helps the trash pickers of Buenos Aires s shantytown, attracts the attention of a corrupt, trigger-happy policeman who will use anyone — including two innocent teenage girls — to break a drug ring that he believes is operating within the slum. A strange new drug, a brightly lit carousel of a slum, the kindness of strangers, gunplay… no matter how serious the subject matter, and despite Aira s «fascination with urban violence and the sinister underside of Latin American politics» (The Millions), Shantytown, like all of Aira s mesmerizing work, is filled with wonder and mad invention.