In 1943, General Thadeus Dreyer, a WWI hero who trains doubles for Nazi leaders, disappears. In 1960, Adolf Eichmann, a master chess player, is arrested in Buenos Aires, extradited to Israel, and hanged. Years later, a dying Polish count casts doubt on Eichmann's identity, leaving behind a manuscript with clues that tie the three men together. A gripping novel of imposture and identity, Shadow Without a Name is a harrowing parable of our century of chaos, where individual will is swamped by the cult of personality and destinies hang on a game of chess.

Shadow Without a Name

Literature & Fiction

Padilla, Ignacio

Contemporary

Picador USA

Antipodes: Stories

These lively and eclectic narratives, by the author of Shadow Without a Name, move from the scorching heat of the Gobi desert to the glacial heights of Mount Everest: here, among others, are the stories of a Scottish engineer who builds an exact replica of the city of Edinburgh in the dunes; of a dying, cross-dressing pilot who allegedly climbs Mount Everest and then mysteriously disappears; and of a monk who conjures the devil to prove the devil's existence. Based on history, legend, and an awe-inspiring power of invention, Antipodes delights, terrifies, and entrances.

United States

Picador

From the author of the award-winning novel Shadow Without a Name, comes Antipodes, the first collection of his short fiction to be translated into English. This lively, eclectic, and highly imaginative volume spans time, place, and culture as the narratives move from the scorching heat of the Gobi desert to the glacial heights of Mount Everest. Here, among others, are the stories of a great Scottish engineer, left to die in the middle of the desert, who is rescued by a tribe of nomads and inspires them to build an exact replica of the city of Edinburgh in the dunes; of a dying, cross-dressing pilot who allegedly climbs Mount Everest and then mysteriously disappears; of an English colonel who swears on his life to make the trains in Zambezi run on time, only to be forced to honor his word when they are always ten minutes late; of a monk who conjures the devil to prove the devil's existence; and of a young administrator of a psychiatric hospital who is appalled by the treatment of the patients, and devises his own bizarre solution. Based on history, legend and an awe-inspiring power of invention, Antipodes delights, terrifies, and entrances.

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

A stunning debut by one of Mexico’s most dazzling younger writers, who “represents the continuation and reinvigoration of literature in our country” (Carlos Fuentes) In 1916, Victor Kretzchmar and Thadeus Dreyer face each other over a chessboard on a train heading to the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s disastrous Eastern Front. The stakes are high: the winner will take Kretzchmar’s identity as a railway signalman and live out the war in safety. The loser will go to certain death. In 1943, the decorated World War I hero and influential Nazi General Thadeus Dreyer is in charge of training doubles to stand in for leading Nazis at dangerous public events. But when the Amphitryon Project falls out of favor with Goering, Dreyer and the doubles disappear. In 1960, Adolf Eichmann, a master chess player, is arrested in Buenos Aires, where he has been living under an assumed name. One of the few escaped Nazis to be recaptured, he is extradited to Israel and executed. Only an old Polish count claims to know Eichmann’s true identity, but he dies before it can be revealed. The clues to what ties all of these men together are concealed in an old manuscript that the count has left to his heirs—an unlikely trio of misfits who suddenly find themselves at the center of a dangerous game. This gripping novel from acclaimed author Ignacio Padilla explores questions of identity and history against the turbulent backdrop of twentieth-century Europe.

Shadow Without a Name: A Novel

Literary

A novel of imposture and identity where no one is who he claims to be - and destinies hang on a game of chess. 1943: General Thadeus Dreyer, hero of WW1, is in charge of the Amphitryon Project, training doubles to stand in for leading Nazis at dangerous public events. When the Project falls out of favour, he and the doubles disappear. 1960: Adolf Eichmann, a master chess player, is arrested in Buenos Aires, living under an assumed name. One of the few escaped Nazis to be recaptured, he is extradited to Israel and hanged. Years later, an old Polish Count seems to know the truth of his identity. Who are these men? In a story worthy of the Latin-American masters, Ignacio Padilla has written a gripping parable of our century of chaos: where we hurtled towards an uncertain destination; where the individual will was swamped by the cult of personality; where the fate of millions was determined by moves on a board.

SIMON SCHUSTER (TRADE DIVISION)

Simon Schuster Ltd

“Esto es un juego, como todo lo que vale en la literatura. La palabra es una y la misma; la novela, digan lo que digan, viene de siempre y continúa. Rompiéndola, prevalece. En efecto, si no hay nada nuevo bajo el sol, es porque lo viejo vale para la novedad”. Ignacio Padilla “Las novelas del Crack no son novelas optimistas, rosas, amables; saben, como Joseph Conrad, que ser esperanzado en sentido artístico no implica necesariamente creer en la bondad del mundo”. Pedro Ángel Palou “Las redes sociales agitan la sociedad del espectáculo. La celebridad dura hoy dos horas. Los escritores abandonan sus plumas y sus computadoras y hacen stand-up comedy. Novelas profundas, polifónicas: el clamor principal del manifiesto. Contra la banalidad del nacionalismo y de las etiquetas. Al menos en este punto la lucha no ha variado”. Jorge Volpi “Las novelas del Crack comparten esencialmente el riesgo, la exigencia, la rigurosidad y esa voluntad totalizadora que tantos equívocos ha generado. Si volviesen sus majestades, Memoria de los días, La conspiración idiota, Las Rémoras y El temperamento melancólico rehúsan cualquier fórmula masiva o probada. Corren el riesgo de ensayar”. Ricardo Chávez Castañeda “El Crack es como una novela: tiene su principio, su clímax y su desenlace inesperado y no siempre feliz, pero esto, la verdad, no importa demasiado, lo mismo que no importa que Don Quijote haya muerto en 1615 o 1616… La duración, el gozo, la lectura infinita es lo único que, al final, importa”. Eloy Urroz

Manifiesto del Crack (1996) Postmanifiesto del Crack (1996-2006) (El derecho a la pereza) (Spanish Edition)

Volpi, Jorge

Palou, Pedro Ángel

Urroz, Eloy

Castañeda, Ricardo Chávez

History & Criticism

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Jorge Volpi recomienda "quemar este libro antes de abrirlo", ya que "uno corre el peligro de quedar atrapado entre sus páginas". Y es que en los cuentos que conforma esta obra, Ignacio Padilla muestra caracteres tan humanos que, más que pertenecer al mundo literario, parecen emerger de la realidad misma: terrena, intensa y desesperanzada. Atados por lazos de fraternidad ambigua, los personajes respiran una melancolía expresada en una prosa breve e intensa, tan característica del escritor y que lo ha hecho acreedor a los premios Juan Rulfo y Efrén Hernández.

Los anacrónicos y otros cuentos (Spanish Edition)

Short Stories & Anthologies

FONDO DE CULTURA ECONOMICA*

Rulo es descubridor de la Ley del Chipote y la Ley Rulo de la Rompitud de las Cosas. Sabe que los zurdos no pueden usar bien la mano derecha; que la mayoría de sus amigos chutan mejor con el pie derecho, cuando él lo hace con el pie izquierdo. La verdad, Rulo nunca creyó que ser zurdo fuera nada extraordinario, pero llegó Victoria Camargo, una aparente impostora, al reino de los zurdos y todo se transformó; ella pasará de ser su archienemiga a ser su única aliada. Al final, se dan cuenta de dos cosas: ser zurdo no es un privilegio ni un defecto, y que se encuentran cómplices en las personas más inesperadas.

Todos los osos son zurdos (A la orilla del viento / At the Edge of the Wind) (Spanish Edition)

Children's Books

Animals

Lo que no sabe Medea / What Medea Doesnt Know (Spanish Edition)

Genre Fiction

Alfaguara

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Books by Padilla, Ignacio

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Shadow Without a Name

Antipodes: Stories

Antipodes: Stories

Shadow Without a Name: A Novel

Shadow Without a Name

Shadow Without a Name

Manifiesto del Crack (1996) Postmanifiesto del Crack (1996-2006) (El derecho a la pereza) (Spanish Edition)

Los anacrónicos y otros cuentos (Spanish Edition)

Todos los osos son zurdos (A la orilla del viento / At the Edge of the Wind) (Spanish Edition)

Lo que no sabe Medea / What Medea Doesnt Know (Spanish Edition)