Name: 77
Price: 306.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Guillermo Saccomanno
ISBN: 9781940953892

Type

Physical Book

Author

Guillermo Saccomanno

Translated by

Andrea Labinger

Publisher

Open Letter

Year

2019

Language

English

Pages

220

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

21.3 x 13.7 x 2.3 cm

Weight

0.34 kg.

ISBN13

9781940953892

Edition No.

N/A

Synopsis "77 "

Buenos Aires, 1977. In the darkest days of the Videla dictatorship, Gómez, a gay high-school literature teacher, tries to keep a low profile as one-by-one, his friends and students begin to disappear. When Esteban, one of Gómez's favorite students, is taken away in a classroom raid, Gómez realizes that no one is safe anymore, and that asking too many questions can have lethal consequences. His life gradually becomes a paranoid, insomniac nightmare that not even his nightly forays into bars and bathhouses in search of anonymous sex can relieve. Things get even more complicated when he takes in two dissidents, putting his life at risk--especially since he's been having an affair with a homophobic, sadistic cop with ties to the military government. Told mostly in flashbacks thirty years later, 77 is rich in descriptive detail, dream sequences, and even elements of the occult, which build into a haunting novel about absence and the clash between morality and survival when living under a dictatorship.

Guillermo Saccomanno

(Author)

View Author's Page

Guillermo Saccomanno (Buenos Aires, 1948) is a distinguished Argentine writer, screenwriter, and journalist. He began his career as a comic book writer in 1972, collaborating with artists like Breccia and Solano López. His first novel, Prohibido escupir sangre, was published in 1984. Throughout his career, he has tackled themes such as political violence and the human condition, establishing himself as a critical voice in Argentine literature. He is a regular contributor to the newspaper Página/12.

Among his most recognized works are El oficinista (2010), which earned him the Biblioteca Breve Award, and Cámara Gesell (2012), awarded the Dashiell Hammett Prize. In 2025, he received the Alfaguara Novel Prize for Arderá el viento, a work that portrays social degradation in an Argentine coastal shantytown. His narrative, influenced by authors like Faulkner and García Márquez, is characterized by an intense style and a deep exploration of social reality.

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