A Manual for Manuel

by Julio Cortázar

In 1970s Paris, a group of revolutionaries plot the daring kidnapping of a powerful Latin American official. But among them is Andrés, a man adrift in a world of high-stakes politics.

As Andrés spirals into a crisis of identity, Cortázar intersects the group’s story with real-life documents, newspaper clippings, and personal reflections to construct a compelling mosaic that explores the complexities of revolution, commitment, and the human spirit.

380 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 14, 2025

About the author

Julio Cortázar, born Julio Florencio Cortázar Descotte, was an Argentine author of novels and short stories. He influenced an entire generation of Latin American writers from Mexico to Argentina, and most of his best-known work was written in France, where he established himself in 1951.

Reviews

[Quiver · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit like Hopscotch, the style of writing is scattered with details that require a non-coherence-seeking reading strategy, or at least a far more wide-ranging patience — that currently lives in a dimension foreign to this reader.