Rodrigo Blanco Calderón

Longlisted for The International Booker Prize 2024

Rodrigo Blanco has established  himself as one of the leading voices in Latin American literature, and Simpatía seems poised to become the great novel of the death throes of Venezuela and the collapse of Chavism.

Proof of the chaos and misery that plague Caracas are the hordes of dogs that roam the streets, abandoned by the millions of Venezuelans who flee the country. That’s why Ulises, who’s flat broke and teaches in a modest cinema workshop, agrees to create a foundation to rescue dogs in need. Ulises is unwittingly dragged into an odyssey of family entanglements, dangers that have him doubting the people around him—where suddenly no one is what they seem—and mysteries surrounding the most famous, patriotic dogs in Venezuela.

With a masterful hand and refined sense of humour, Rodrigo Blanco has produced a mystery, not without parodic elements, packed with references to cinema, literature, and dogs. Simpatía is like a tragicomic fresco, sometimes grotesque, of Venezuela today. There’s an ironic, irreverent take on some of the country’s most mythical figures, from Simón Bolívar to Hugo Chávez, and a sharp, hilarious reflection on inheritance and identity. 

UK and US:

“In the kinetic latest from Blanco Calderón, a Venezuelan man navigates political and domestic upheaval after the fall of Hugo Chavez. . . The twisty story is chock full of betrayals and intrigue as Ulises faces one hurdle after another in his quest to make good on the inheritance. This page turner has plenty of depth.” – Publishers Weekly

“My favourite book in translation this month is Rodrigo Blanco Calderón’s Simpatía. Caracas- born Calderón has written an imaginative, riveting tale about the collapse of the progressive political ideology of Chavismo in Venezuela, mixed with the deft story of a lovelorn man who turns his family home into a shelter for abandoned dogs.” – Martin Chilton, Independent 

“An unpredictable fable that counters a nation’s hopelessness with the universal need for meaning and connection.” – Kirkus Reviews

‘In this realistic allegory set in Caracas during Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship, we meet Ulises, a former orphan who is desperate for a sense of purpose and belonging. [...] Within the madness and austerity of political corruption and historical revisioning, Ulises devotes himself to one of the saner choices left to him: complete the task by saving the dogs, with the help of his Medea-like lover, Nadine, and the leftover animal rescue and house staff. In doing so he simultaneously creates a chosen family and a practice of care that is a stronger balm for the heart than sympathy.’ The Booker Prize Jury

SPAIN & LA:

“While The Night was dark, Simpatía is tremendously luminous. Even when positing paradoxes or, perhaps, precisely to do so. Ulises: dwell on that name. I read this novel in one sitting. The prose is marvellous and full of beautiful images.” – Karina Sainz Borgo

“In his latest novel, Rodrigo Blanco Calderón continues his investigation, initiated in The Night, into what literature can say about the floundering of Venezuela, this time, through the plight of stray dogs and the love they spur in various orphan characters.” – Jorge Carrión

“Blanco Calderón speaks to us of ‘dogs and men,’ of their struggle for survival, of their pain...and of their hope.” – ABC Cultura

“Simpatía is a new example of the lucidity that can illuminate a lost paradise. Rodrigo Blanco Calderón authors a work equally exquisite in content and form.” – David Jiménez Flores

“The latest novel by the Venezuelan writer Rodrigo Blanco Calderón reestablishes him as one of the most promising contemporary Ibero-American prose writers, and consolidates him as an indisputable figure within the prolific panorama of twenty-first century fiction.” – Letralia

 FRANCE

« Glissant du récit historico-politique à suspense au roman policier, Rodrigo Blanco Calderón rappelle avec brio combien ceux qui nous sont le plus proches s’avèrent presque toujours les plus insaisissables. » Le Monde des livres

« Avec 'De l’amour des chiens', Rodrigo Blanco Calderón réussit le pari du roman à plusieurs entrées. Etude sociologique, enquête policière, drame familial, histoire d’amour contrariée…  autant d’éléments indépendants qui concoururent à une fresque qui les dépassent. Chiens errants et destins brisés deviennent ici les miroirs d’une société en quête d’identité. Ce n’est pas sans raison que le roman figure sur la liste du Booker Prize (sous son titre en anglais, Simpatía), tant Rodrigo Blanco Calderón excelle dans cette étude de mœurs incisive et aiguisée. » Mathieu Soulas, Widoobiz

« 'De l’amour des chiens' est un roman multiple. Le Venezuela y apparaît comme un pays où l’on vit tant bien que mal, dans la violence et les restrictions, un pays que la plupart des gens a fui, les familles partent en lambeaux. » Christian Roinat

« 'De l’amour des chiens' fait briller d’un éclat neuf la modernité littéraire latino-américaine. » Cédric Jugé, Noveaux Espaces Latinos