Five

by César Aira, Chris Andrews (Translator)

A new collection of five novels by the unstoppably prolific Argentine eminence César Aira


A newspaper vendor in Buenos Aires dreams that his favorite soccer team,Racing, wins the championship, and soon the cheerful humdrum of his work-a-day life is tangled in a plot involving impoverished young mothers, millions of embezzled pesos, a sofa-bed factory store, “intestinal architecture,” and (of course) cyber-nuns hell-bent on artificial procreation.


A young princess lives in a fairy-tale castle in the tropics. She is rich, with a vast property and a host of servants at her beck and call. Yet work she for she is a translator of pulp novels for piratical Latin American publishers, and quantity is the order of the day. Deadlines, however, aren’t the only looming threat. General Winter and his sadistic sidekick, the Little Christmas Tree, have gathered a force to invade Princess Springtime’s kingdom and steal the season for themselves.


Before going to sleep, a man plays a practical, private he takes one of his wife’s hormone pills. She never counts them, so she’ll never know, and neither will anyone but he will. As he chuckles himself to sleep over his masterful prank, his perceptions begin to expand, and soon it’s far from clear where the joke ends, and reality begins . . .


At last, a hearty and delicious five-course feast by the incredible novelist César Aira, hailed as “the Duchamp of Latin America” (Natasha Wimmer) and“an exquisite miniaturist” (The Wall Street Journal). Five brings together the novels A Memory, The Dream, Musical Brushstrokes, and Princess Springtime, as well as a short story, “The Hormone Pill.” From thriller to distraction-catnip to conceptual memoir, the many facets of Aira’s multifarious genius are on full display, and in every one, Aira dazzles as he turns expectations inside-out and gleefully explodes genre conventions. Five is a must-have for fans and a fine introduction to the as-yet uninitiated.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

384 pages, Paperback

Published July 28, 2026

About the author

César Aira was born in Coronel Pringles, Argentina in 1949, and has lived in Buenos Aires since 1967. He taught at the University of Buenos Aires (about Copi and Rimbaud) and at the University of Rosario (Constructivism and Mallarmé), and has translated and edited books from France, England, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela. Perhaps one of the most prolific writers in Argentina, and certainly one of the most talked about in Latin America, Aira has published more than eighty books to date in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and Spain, which have been translated for France, Great Britain, Italy, Brazil, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Romania, Russia, and now the United States. One novel, La prueba, has been made into a feature film, and How I Became a Nun was chosen as one of Argentina’s ten best books. Besides essays and novels Aira writes regularly for the Spanish newspaper El País. In 1996 he received a Guggenheim scholarship, in 2002 he was short listed for the Rómulo Gallegos prize, and has been shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.

Reviews

[Omar Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of César Aira's novels which occasionally communicate with one another, and a good selection it is.

Extemporaneous review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5GNy...

Written review: https://shorturl.at/TLLzh

I recommend what's written.

[Alicia Garcia-Webster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely off-the-charts insane, and at the same time, perfectly rational in a rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth sort of way. Five by Cesar Aira is a book of five essays and short stories which run the gamut from "plausible" to "I've blown a brain gasket, and all my systems are down". The author is an absolute master at making anything that is typically regarded as fantastical or farcical seem part and parcel of a normal day if only you are willing to join him on this very singular journey of his. In a way, I felt like a traitor to my own mind after reading this book. I felt a bit like I was a victim of Stockholm's Syndrome, and the author was my captor. Led down the proverbial primrose path to my demise, but feeling compelled to do so nonetheless. If you read this book, which I encourage you to do, then you'll understand a bit why I am having trouble being more specific. There are stories that are very linear in approach. Then there are tales that are like exploding stars; words and images emanating from a central core outwards. This book contains the latter. If you like your stories to be tidy and contained, then this book is probably not for you. It is interesting to note that the first essay is the most "normal", and the last essay is the least so. I believe this was intentional. You enter through the large front door, but you exit through the tiny mouse hole under the old floor board. You leave wholly different than when you arrived. ** I received this ARC for free from the publisher, but all opinions are my own.