The Bonfire and the Chessboard | Matías Néspolo | Granta Magazine

The Bonfire and the Chessboard

Matías Néspolo

Translated by Frank Wynne

‘I’m not a snob, it’s just that down here we take chess seriously.’

Matías Néspolo

Matías Néspolo, born in Buenos Aires, currently works as a journalist and lives in Barcelona, on the shores of the Mediterranean, with his three daughters, his wonderful wife and a dog called Jonás. In 2005, he published his first collection of poems, Anthología seca de Green Hills, and in the following years several short stories in various anthologies. The latest anthology, Schiffe aus Feuer: 36 Geschichten aus Lateinamerika (2010), was published in Germany. In 2009, he edited an anthology with his sister, Jimena Néspolo, La erotica de relato: Escritores de la nueva literatura argentina, and published his first novel, Siete maneras de matar a un gato, which will also be published in English as Seven Ways to Kill a Cat (2011).

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Translated by Frank Wynne

Frank Wynne is an Irish literary translator. In a career spanning twenty years, he has translated numerous French and Hispanic authors, including Michel Houellebecq, Patrick Modiano, Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, Javier Cercas, Carlos Manuel Álvarez and Virginie Despentes. A number of his translations have won prizes, including the International Dublin Literary Award, the Scott Moncrieff Prize and the Premio Valle-Inclán. Photograph © Nick Bradshaw

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