Sobre Héroes y Tumbas = On Heroes and Tombs, 1981, Ernesto SábatoOn Heroes and Tombs is a novel by Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato (1911–2011), first published in Buenos Aires in 1961, and translated by Helen R. Lane in 1981. Nineteen-year-old Martin Castillo is a boy from Buenos Aires trying to find his path in life. He meets and falls in love with Alejandra Vidal Olmos who with her father Fernando represents the "old", post-colonial and autochthonous Argentina, which is seen mutating amid a st...

'I can feel the passageof time, as thought it werecoursing through myveins, along with my blood'It's not often I turn to google maps whilst reading a book. In the case of Ernesto Sabato's 1961 novel I found it helpful but not essential. The first third of the novel there didn't seem to be a moment without the mention of a specific area within the city, add to that an abundance of street names, landmarks and buildings, which initially bothered me. Because the city in question and the setting for

On Heroes and Tombs is a story of the great young blinding love and it is a story of the great love mystery.And there is a great dark story within the love story: Report on the Blind.• God does not exist.• God exists and is a bastard.• God exists, but falls asleep from time to time: his nightmares are our existence.• God exists, but has fits of madness: these fits are our existence.That is the hypothetical nature of our existence according to the gospel of the blind. Reading it I thought of Jorg...

An Argentine story in the labyrinthine tradition of the author’s countryman, Borges. Sabato is one more of an entire boatload of Latin American authors who fled their countries for exile in Europe or the US during periods of military dictatorship. When he returned to Argentina (he died at 100 in 2011) Sabato burned all his work except for three novels, saying that he did not want to be remembered for mediocre work. The last descendants of an old oligarchical family of Buenos Aires reside in a de...

It is not clear to me why Sabato did not get Nobel Prize for literature. This book is the masterpiece. The plot is quite strange and it enabled Sabato to tell profound things about the world and human nature in general. On Heroes and Tombs defenetly goes to my favorite shelf.

" Everything here is full of nostalgia, maybe because there are few countries in the world where this feeling is so repetitive. To the first Spaniards, because they missed their homeland from afar, then to the Indians, because they longed for the lost freedom, the very meaning of their existence ; and finally, to immigrants, because they missed their homeland, their wonderful habits, the Christmas holidays next to the fire ".It is a book I read before " The Tunnel ", but to which I had some rel...

Well...I have a mixed feeling about this book.The first half of the book, consisting in two parts - The Dragon and the Princess and Invisible Faces - was one of the most intense reading I had so far and I was thinking that this is worthy of a 5 stars rating.But after that it's like you're reading a completely different book, wich can be a good thing, nonetheless, but I was captivated by the story between Martin and Alejandra and wanted to know more of that, thus I was a bit dissapointed by the s...

The antagonist/protagonist Alejandra seems to be the extended version of Idiot's Nastasya Filippovna, and that's something I couldn't get out of my brain all the while reading this. This is a great novel, quite Dostoyevsky-esque, has it's great moments, presents this unforgettable imagery, but I didn't comprehend it all the right way. Definitely needs a reread.I wish I, a] knew Spanish b] read a bit of Argentine History (which I did while reading the book, and not prior) c] had put in more ef...

Decent review fromm 1981: http://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/boo...The point in that review that I disagree with most strongly is the idea that Sábato isn't funny. The third section of the book, "Report on the Blind," is dark, twisted, and totally paranoid, but it's also a playful usage of an unreliable narrator. It's funny like parts of Lolita are, although the author's literary intentions and overall sincerity-level could not be more different.Like Aira (me thinks this to be a common trait to g...

ESTE ES UNO DE LOS MEJORES LIBROS QUE HE LEIDO Y ES LA PRIMER OBRA DE SABATO QUE LEO. EL ESTILO ES MUY DIFERENTE EN UNA MANERA POSITIVA A OTROS AUTORES DEL "BOOM" LATINOAMERICANO.EL LIBRO DURANTE LAS DOS PRIMERAS PARTES MANTIENE UNA BUENA TRAMA EN DONDE ALGUNOS DE LOS EPISODIOS MAS MEMORABLES EN MI OPINION SON EL BOMBARDEO DE BUENOS AIRES EN EL INTENTO DE GOLPE DE ESTADO EN CONTRA DE PERÓN EN LA DECADA DE 1950. EN ESTE EPISODIO SABATO ES CAPAZ DE COMENZAR A CREAR UNA ATMÓSFERA DE OSCURIDAD Y DE

It totally blew me away! One of the finest gems of Latin American literature that should not be missed. An incredible dense and complex masterpiece, it dives without fear into dark and unexplored crevices of the human mind and soul with unbelievable style and intensity. Hats off to Ernesto Sabato!

It took me a long time to read this because I kept going back to re-read passages and episodes, and to do sketches of the characters’ faces as a visual support. Sometimes I just indulged in going back to a particularly intense moment, in a book that is packed with them, and immerse myself into the awe of its horror, pathos or literary beauty. This book was a hell of a ride, a remarkable journey down into the depths of human despair, a portrait of formidable weakness and formidable strength. But

Sobre Héroes y Tumbas is the second novel by Ernesto Sabato. It was a good complex read that explores the depth of humanity. The book starts with an announcement that the late Alejandra Vidal Olmos has just shot her father and then burned herself alive, and so, the book is mainly about the lives of these two characters and what led to the afore mentioned situation, though the plot is developed through other characters.Before continuing, I must say that the book was divided into four chapters. Ea...

“She fascinated me like a dark abyss, and if I was in despair it was precisely because I loved her and needed her. How can something to which we are indifferent plunge us in despair?”

This is for the most part a philosophical novel about the tortuous nature of love and the impenetrability of loved ones. It's related through conversations between two friends as they attempt to piece together memories of their dead lovers, but the story is also interlaced with Argentine history - a history of battles and radical ideas. At its core the novel is about a man's search for meaning in a cruel, senseless world.All of that stuff is good, but the real treat in the book comes in the thir...

El Túnel is one of my favorite books ever. I have re-visited a few times. But somehow I never put hands on Sobre héroes y tumbas despite being always on my list; until now.Maybe because I was really looking forward, maybe because of the incredible reviews or maybe just because it wasn't the right time to read it; the fact is that it took me almost 2/3 of the book to truly enjoy it. The book has passages of pure literature but the story didn't engaged me. Nevertheless, I am sure I'll get back to

Ernesto Sabato began his professional life as a scientist, first garnering a PhD in physics from Argentina’s Universidad Nacional de La Plata and then proceedings to the Sorbonne and the Curie Institute. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Sabato would abandon science in favour of writing, producing fiction, essays, and translations until well into the 21st century. Though Sabato would only produce three novels—THE TUNNEL in 1948, ON HEROES AND TOMBS in 1961, and THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS in 1...

I don't know where to begin on this. Some parts are 5 stars and some are much less. I am not sure if 3 stars is the right rating.... I was really excited to read this book and perhaps that ruined it for me. I get the feeling that I didn't quite get the book, perhaps I was thinking it was something else. It starts brilliantly but eventually drags. The Report On The Blind was at times entertaining and crazy but also dragged for me and except the last few pages it felt repetitive.There are some bea...

I fell in love with the female character of this book. She's the type of girl who would keep you close, but far enough to maintain your constant interest. Sabato's psychological descriptions of the characters are excellent, as usual.

This is a book that can only be read holding your breath. One that takes you completely there, and leaves you utterly confused. A book about chaos and obsession - incomprehensible even to the author himself.

One of the best books I have ever read.

As soon as I began Heroes and Tombs I was transported back to reading The Tunnel nearly 20 years ago, a book that enthralled me at the time. Sabato whips up that same dark, romantic atmosphere in the opening scenes. Martin, a hopeless, foppish, love-struck young man, tells of his encounter with the alluring Alejandra in a park in Buenos Aires and his subsequent obsession with finding her. Their affair immediately has an air of doomed inevitability, just like the poor painter in The Tunnel who si...

I'm not really sure how do you review a book that has no faults, other than just pointing it out that the book doesn't have faults.I really enjoyed this book. What I like about it is that it has a lot of smaller underline stories going on during the main story, and they all paint a better picture of what life was like in Buenos Aires and they give you a deeper understanding of the characters. These stories might be boring to some people, but that's the deal, you can chose if you want to make the...

This novel is simply wonderful! Composed in a rich language filled with beautiful metaphors mixed with examples of living or not living with the philosophy of existentialism. Moreover, the novel relates itself with the tragic history of Argentina. My favorite part is the third book which take us on a journey into the microcosmos of Fernando's confusing labyrinth of consciousness. This might be the greatest book i've ever read.

I am a Jorge Luis Borges fan for a quit long time, but this is one of the best Latin America fiction ever. Ernesto Sabato is a great writer and needless to say it is a fine read and page turner book. I was wondering why I did not read it before....give a try and you won't regret it.

Genial!

Although the first two chapters are very interesting, then the story became non-sense and without connection to previous passages of the book. Very disappointing book.

1. God does not exist.2. God exists, and is a rogue3. God exists, but falls asleep from time to time: his nightmares are our existence4. God exists, but has fits of madness: these fits are our existence5. God is not omnipresent, he cannot be everywhere. Sometimes he is absent, in other worlds? In other things?6. God is a poor devil who has a problem too complicated for his strength. He struggles with the matter like an artist struggles with his work. Sometimes, at some point, he manages to be Go...

You'll find some essence of the main characters written in this novel by Sabato as an influence or an imprint on other great Latin American writers. For example, I see some of Alejandra and Martin's traits in characters of Cortazar's Hopscotch and in characters of Bolaño's The Savage Detectives.

A must read if you like existentialism, but this book is different than the most traditional works by traditional authors on the subject. It's a novel, with a loose structure. Full of deep reflections about life, religion, and the nature of the human condition. Sabato delivers all his philosophy mixed with some of his dark obsessions, like blindness and darkness in general. The chapter titled "Report on the blind" it's unique. The irrationality on the rationality depicted by the main character,