Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill

With a subtle plot and an overlay of dialogues as overflowing as they are precise, Fogwill needed only eleven hours in the lives of six characters to explore, in this novel originally published in 1998, one of Argentina's most emblematic and contradictory crises.

A mosaic of marginal characters, hustlers, well-off but uncomfortable women, a combatant from Los pichiciegos (1983), an arms dealer, and even an alter ego of the author—Gil Wolff—interact blindly and randomly, driven by sexual desire and the impulse to survive, in a wild itinerary from the suburbs to the capital. The abuse of power, prostitution, the vicissitudes of Buenos Aires nightlife, violence, and drugs intertwine in an atmosphere of fascination and a death drive besieged by the aftermath of the Falklands War and the threat of HIV.

Beyond the law, General Paz Avenue, and good manners, Vivir afuera is not only one of Fogwill's most insightful, raw, and provocative novels but also a stark counterpoint to the great illusion that forever marked the 1990s.