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Gesell Dome Summary and Reviews

Gesell Dome by Guillermo Saccomanno (Author), Andrea G. Labinger (translator)

Gesell Dome

by Guillermo Saccomanno (Author), Andrea G. Labinger (translator)

  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Published:
  • Aug 2016, 600 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Like True Detective through the lenses of William Faulkner and John Dos Passos, Gesell Dome is a mosaic of misery, a page-turner that will keep you enthralled right until its shocking end.

Opening with reports of a child abuse scandal at an elementary school, then weaving its way through dozens of sordid storylines and characters - including various murders, corrupt politicians and real-estate moguls, and the Nazi past of the city - Gesell Dome chronicles the dark underbelly of a popular resort town tensely awaiting the return of the tourist season.

Two-time winner of the Dashiell Hammett Prize, Guillermo Saccomanno is Argentina's foremost noir writer, crafting incisive, unflinching books that reveal the inequities of contemporary life.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

Winner of the 2013 Dashiell Hammett Prize

Recipient of a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Award

"Starred Review. Like Twin Peaks reimagined by Roberto Bolaño, Gesell Dome is a teeming microcosm in which voices combine into a rich, engrossing symphony of human depravity." - Publishers Weekly

"Moving from character to character, Saccomanno writes with dark lyricism of the shady dealmakers, old-school Nazis, youngsters "with their hormones raging," prostitutes, and other types whom you might expect to find in a grim place and a grim time. Cynical and funny: a yarn worthy of a place alongside Cortázar and Donoso." - Kirkus

"Through a skillful weaving of characters and plotlines, coming together like a completed puzzle, Saccomanno has crafted a monumental novel where individual stories unnerve us while building to the unexpected and explosive finale." - El Mundo (Spain)

This information about Gesell Dome was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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More Information

Guillermo Saccomanno is the author of numerous novels and story collections, including El buen dolor, winner of the Premio Nacional de Literatura, and 77 and Gesell Dome, both of which won the Dashiell Hammett Prize. He also received Seix Barral's Premio Biblioteca Breve de Novela for El oficinista and the Rodolfo Walsh Prize for nonfiction for Un maestro.

Andrea G. Labinger is the translator of more than a dozen works from the Spanish, including books by Ana María Shua, Liliana Heker, Luisa Valenzuela, and Alicia Steimberg, among others.

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