Approaching his fiftieth birthday, the narrator in My Two Worlds is
wandering in an unfamiliar Brazilian city, in search of a park. A walker
by inclination and habit, he has decided to explore the city after
attending a literary conference--he was invited following the
publication of his most recent novel, although, as he has been informed
via anonymous e-mail, the novel is not receiving good reviews. Initially
thwarted by his inability to transpose the two-dimensional information
of the map onto the impassable roads and dead-ends of the
three-dimensional city, once he finds the park the narrator begins to
see his own thoughts, reflections, and memories mirrored in the
landscape of the park and its inhabitants.
Chejfec's My Two Worlds, an extraordinary meditation on experience,
writing, and space, is at once descriptively inventive and
preternaturally familiar, a novel that challenges the limitations of the
genre.
Sergio Chejfec, originally from Argentina, has published numerous
works of fiction, poetry, and essays. Among his grants and prizes, he
has received fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in 2007
and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 2000. He teaches at NYU.
Margaret Carson translates contemporary poetry, fiction, and drama
from Latin America. She also teaches in the Modern Languages Department
at Borough of Manhattan Community College.
