Stranger to the Moon

by Evelio Rosero, Anne McLean (Translator), Victor Meadowcroft (Translator)

The renowned Colombian writer Evelio Rosero has never been one to shy away from the darker aspects of his nation’s history and society. His magnificent novel Stranger to the Moon portrays a world that seems to exist outside time and place but taps into the dark myths and collective subconscious of his country, with its harrowing inequality and violence. A parable of pointed social criticism, with naked humans imprisoned in a house in order to serve the needs of “the vicious clothed ones,” the novel describes what ensues when a single “naked one” privately rebels, risking his own death and that of his fellow prisoners. Each subsequent section of the book adds further layers to the ritualistic and bizarre social order inhabited by its characters. Insects and reptiles are trained as agents and spies against the naked ones, and only the most fortunate humans manage to reach old age by taking up strategic spots near the kitchens and grabbing for the fiercely contested food. Stranger to the Moon is a brave, powerful, and distinctive novel by a writer who arguably holds the strongest claim to the title of Colombia’s greatest living author.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Horror, Spanish Literature, Dystopia, Latin American, Novella

71 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Evelio Rosero Diago was born in Bogotá, Colombia, on March 20, 1958. He is a Colombian writer and journalist, who reached international acclaim after winning in 2006 the prestigious Tusquets Prize.

Evelio Rosero studied primary school in Colombia’s southern city of Pasto, and high school in Bogotá, where he later attended Universidad Externado de Colombia obtaining a degree in Journalism. When he was 21, he won Colombia’s Premio Nacional de Cuento del Quindío 1979 (National Short Story Award of Quindío), for his piece Ausentes (The Departed) that was published by Instituto Colombiano de Cultura in the book 17 Cuentos colombianos (17 Colombian Short Stories). In 1982 he was awarded with the Premio Iberoamericano de Libro de Cuentos Netzahualcóyotl, in Mexico City for his earlier stories, and that same year, a novella under the title Papá es santo y sabio (Dad is holy and wise) won Spain’s Premio Internacional de Novela Breve Valencia. After these early successess, Rosero fled to Europe and lived first in Paris and later in Barcelona.

His first novel in 1984 was Mateo Solo (Mateo Alone), which began his trilogy known as Primera Vez (First Time). Mateo Solo is a story about a child confined in his own home. Mateo knows about the outside world for what he sees through the windows. It is a novel of dazzling confinement, where sight is the main character: his sister, his aunt, his nanny all play their own game while allowing Mateo to keep his hope for identity in plotting his own escape.

With his second book in 1986, Juliana los mira (Juliana is watching), Evelio Rosero was translated into Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and German to great acclaim. Once again, the visual experience of a child, this time a girl, builds the world of grownups and family, unveiling all the brutality and meanness of adults as seen with her ingenuousness. Juliana’s world is her own house and family. As Juliana watches her parents and relatives, she builds them. Her sight alters objects as she contemplates them. This was the first book where Rosero involved other themes from Colombia’s tragical reality such as kidnapping, presented here as a permanent threat that in the end justifies Juliana’s own confinement.

In 1988, El Incendiado (The Burning Man) was published. With this book, Rosero obtained a Proartes bachelor in Colombia and won in 1992 the II Premio Pedro Gómez Valderrama for the most outstanding book written between 1988 and 1992. The novel tells the stories of a group of teenagers from a famous school in Bogotá, Colegio Agustiniano Norte, denouncing the education taught by the priest headmasters as “fool, arcaic, troglodite and morbid”.

To date, he has written nine novels, beginning with Señor que no conoce luna in 1992 and Cuchilla in 2000 which won a Norma-Fundalectura prize. Plutón (Pluto) published also in 2000, Los almuerzos (The lunches) in 2001, Juega el amor in 2002 and Los Ejércitos, which won in 2006 the prestigious 2nd Premio Tusquets Editores de Novela and also won in 2009 the prestigious Independent Foreign Fiction Prize organized by the British newspaper The Independent.

Evelio Rosero currently lives in Bogotá. In 2006 he won Colombia’s Premio Nacional de Literatura (National Literature Prize) awarded in recognition of a life in letters by the Ministry of Culture. His work has been translated into a dozen European languages.

Reviews

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

hatred, which is the worst pain of all.

a brutal, bizarre allegorical novella of stratification, evelio rosero's stranger to the moon (señor que no conoce la luna) is a slim, but substantial tale rich in imagery and effect. the colombian author's latest work rendered into english was originally published in 1992, though nearly three decades later has lost neither import nor impact. in rosero's fantastical world, two distinct classes exist: the clothed ones and the naked ones, the latter forced (and tortured) into service of the former. at times shocking despite its narrative nonchalance (and even moments of humor), stranger to the moon is a wallop — and also an impressive contrast to his other worthwhile works (most notably the armies ).

but to count the years spent under the filth and shame of their punishments i would have to be born and live and die at least some seventy times.

*translated from the spanish by victor meadowcroft (garcía freire) and anne mclean (vila-matas, cercas, vásquez, cortázar, et al.)

[Stacia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A harsh, grim, and slightly surreal allegory, ultimately about power -- physical, mental, military, social, historic, religious, economic. And also the power of defiance, bravery, individuality.

I'm currently rereading 1984 and this is an interesting and well-fitted companion piece.

As the saying goes, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Rage against the machine, folks.

[Juliana Muñoz Toro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una metáfora, una fábula de las víctimas y victimarios. Un ser desnudo de dos sexos, que mira sin ser visto. Un largo e intenso poema.

[Kilburn Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly my favourite book about naked hermaphrodites

[Stefania Troncoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

La novela permite una lectura interesante desde una perspectiva analítica. Se hace obvio como el autor resalta los pensamientos occidentales en cuanto a las oposiciones binarias. Cuando hablamos de seres humanos los dividimos entre mujeres y hombres, viejos y jóvenes, blancos y negros, ricos y pobres, urbanos y rurales, creyentes e incrédulos. Este autor propone otra oposición, vestidos y desnudos, en donde, los primeros disponen libremente de los segundos, resaltando la impotencia y esclavitud, impidiendo la construcción de un individuo autónomo, libre y feliz. Frente a esta situación, Evelio Rosero plantea que el individuo lúcido (desnudo del armario) no tiene más alternativa que escapar de la degradación y hostilidad del mundo recurriendo al refugio interior; actitud que se convertirá en una forma de ser en nuestra actualidad.

Este es solo un análisis de los tantos que se pueden extraer de la novela, que es muy dinámica y sencillamente excepcional.

[Emma Strawbridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

i am extremely confused. very strange, very kafka

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is super weird! But weird in the way that I like. I saw it recommended by a local bookstore employer who has similar tastes to me, so I thought I'd take a chance on it. I really liked it but I have so many unanswered questions...

[Leonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very odd story but weirdly interesting. Dives into topics such as social hierarchy and power structures. Also very short so an easy read.

[SANTIAGO VALLEJO · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best book by Rosero’s standards. The book is a cross between Colombian race relations and Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends. Unfortunately it isn’t done in a good way as the story oscillates from profound to silly in a very clunky way. An easy book to read with a disorganized and convoluted plot.

[Castles · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, that was a hellish little trip. Too much bowel movement this one, with a strange fascination with the abject.

An allegory, but of what?

Anyway, I know a good shrink, her name is Julia Kristeva.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was a fucking weird book.

[María · Rating 5 out of 5]

La desnudez significa vergüenza.

Creo que, las personas que están desnudas simbolizan a las personas que hacen algo que ocasione vergüenza a la sociedad.

La forma en que torturan a los desnudos me hace recordar a los escarches públicos de acoso, o cuando hacen justicia con mano propia a un ladrón. Que alguien “desnudo” este donde no debería estar, es algo que siempre va a generar revuelo entre las personas “vestidas”. Que alguien no aceptable este donde no se espera que este va a generar el mismo sentimiento. Se le va a odiar.

El hombre que no conoce la luna es un libro corto, pero sustancial. Que no confunde oscuridad con profundidad, y que plantea como nosotros percibimos la vergüenza. La prosa es hermosa, Evelio Rosero no escribió ni una palabra de relleno en todo el libro.

Esa es una interpretación , pero entre más avanzado en libro puede sonar más que los desnudos representan la clase baja o media, los trabajadores, el proletariado, los que están abajo de la pirámide social. Mientas que los vestidos son los privilegiados, los que tienen el poder de oprimir y “torturar” a los desnudos para que nunca salgan de su casita, de su esfera social.

Esto me hace recordar una estadística que leí hace mucho, un reportaje dijo alguna vez que en colombia se necesitan que nazcan 11 generaciones para que una familia salga de la pobreza. Y los vestidos intimidan lo suficientemente a los desnudos con las amenazas de tortura y vigilancia como para que ni ellos mismos se revelen contra el opresor. Se podría decir que los desnudos están dentro de un “círculo de pobreza” que se representa en la casa donde viven, y los vestidos son la “clase privilegiada”, que no permite a los vestidos dejar de estar en el último eslabón de la escala social. Pues los desnudos están condenados a ser pobres, tontos y manipulables toda su vida, hasta que hayan pasado 11 generaciones.

Aunque la estadística de las 11 generaciones para salir de la pobreza no es algo que sea regla para toda la población colombiana, si que es bastante difícil para una persona promedio subir en la escala social y generar más ingresos para su vivir.

Ahora, el personaje de La-Pajara se le puede interpretar como una alegoría a la protesta social de los desnudos. La única razón por la que eso pasa es para entretenimiento de los vestidos.



Me parece curioso que los vestidos se desnudan en las fiestas como fetiche, pero siempre se dejen una prenda para que puedan ser distinguidos. Es como si dijeran que los vestidos siempre serán vestidos aunque quieran ser desnudos. Aunque se quiten la ropa y se completen como desnudos siempre serán vestidos porque hay algo, en este caso que tienen un solo sexo, que los diferencia de manera biológica de los desnudos.

Y es como si dijeran también, que aunque los desnudos se vistan con ropa robada siempre serán desnudos, porque ellos tienen dos sexos y eso no es normal entre los vestidos. Esa diferencia es lo que hace que el protagonista sienta el deseo de venganza, sienta el deseo de matar a un vestido.

En Colombia hay un refrán que dice así: “estoy peleando con las uñas” es como si el autor personificara este refrán en el protagonista. El refrán se refiere a cuando una persona no tiene los medio suficientes para sobrevivir, entonces vive el día a día “rasgando del fondo de la olla”, sobreviviendo con lo último y lo más frágil de si mismo, con las uñas.

[Kyle C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stranger to the Moon is a rootless allegory. The novella describes a caste-society in which the "clothed ones" rule over and torture the "naked ones", sexually dimorphic creatures with double genitalia who hide in a single home and compete with one another for food. Those who leave will inevitably die at the murderous pleasure of the clothed ones. The protagonist keeps inside his own closet but, growing his nails longer, one day decides to rebel.

The allegory feels untethered from any specific referent. Are the double genitalia a reference to Plato's Symposium in which Aristophanes explains that the original humans were once comprised of two bodies that Jupiter divided to create male and female? Are the various apparatuses of torture a reference to Kafka's In the Penal Colony? Are the war-crazed clothed ones a symbol for totalitarian exploitation and subjugation? Are the naked ones a parable of apartheid? In its grim visions of sadistic torture, involving feces and barbed wire and people manacled to corpses, the novella recalls the most harrowing of 120 Days of Sodom; in its descriptions of insect spies and elderly people inhabiting cupboards, it seems more like a children's fable.

It's definitely interesting, but the allegory seemed to float too loose from any referent or any genre. It's a brutal story of violence and segregation, but its surrealism robs it of impact.

[Juanita Nieto Arango · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un libro muy extraño, de un hombre que ve transcurrir la vida suya y de los otros desde un armario. No puede mostrarse en público y está condenado al encierro, desnudo, en una casa, salir de la casa implicaría condena, tortura y muerte .... por ser como es (como es? un desnudo). Es el miedo a mostrarse tal como se es ante los otros. No se si este libro lo entendí del todo. Pero, tiene lo que solo tiene la escritura de Evelio Rosero, esos párrafos que no nos dejan tranquilos por muchos días después de haber pasado la página y el libro. Y en general, es un libro triste y lleno de sentimiento.

“y siento además miedo y odio, una insoslayable ganas de matar, a diestra y siniestra, y luego claudicar.”

“dos deseos: matar o huir, huir horrorizado, pidiendo perdón por la sola razón de ser como soy. Vencerme. Entregarme.”

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine, but if you've already delved into Kafka, Camus, Beckett, Sartre who delight in despair, Stranger to the Moon won't wow you. Still, it's an unpleasant's night read, and an obvious metaphor for the class divisions, economic disparities, tribal warfare, and ideological strife same as it ever was. I think teens or young adults might warm to its chilly scenes if this was in a book club or went around by word of mouth. Likely some censorious scolds would ban it from schools for daring to imagine oppressed, naked, ravenously starving, hirsute people that have both sexes' genitalia, and love meat.

[Sandra B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un autor maravilloso, con una narrativa mágica, aunque creo que la expresión sería mágico trágica. Excelente libro, de los que ponen a pensar.

[Olivia Richmond-Ferns]

The world in this book is on the face of it, absurd. But then it made me think of the concept of making the familiar strange and the strange familiar. Felt less absurd after that.

[mina-mae alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bro what da fuq I only picked this up from a charity shop cos it looked cute af but it fucking wasnt. What the fuck 😭😭

[Arturo Serrano · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wrote about this book for the Ignyte-winning, Hugo-winning blog Nerds of a Feather:

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2024/12/...

[meg (the.hidden.colophon) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, this novella is really bizarre. However, I didn’t find it as abstract as everyone else is claiming, in fact there were two or three points where I thought meaning was way too overwritten to give the reader a shot at drawing their own conclusions.

I thought this was a pretty clear allegory to La Violencia and the constant uncertainty faced by citizens at that time. Random acts of violence, the slaughter of hundreds of “naked ones”, and seemingly sporadic and unpredictable changes to the rules that oppress naked ones make this allegory clear to me. La Violencia is estimated to have impacted something of 20% of the Colombian population. In the book, it’s unclear how many “clothed ones” there are, but I get the idea that they vastly outnumber the naked ones. There seems to be a distinct connection between the naked ones’ house constantly being threatened by the clothed ones and the fear of Conservative takeovers of property during La Violencia. There are other connections, but I think this novella is better enjoyed when the reader can draw their own conclusions. This just happened to be mine.

Overall it was an enjoyable and quick read. I don’t know how many people I’d actually recommend it to due to just how weird it is, but I would encourage anyone interested to give it a try.

3.75.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Armies, the Colombian novelist Evelio Rosero creates a claustrophobic space in the novel’s village, setting threatened by government forces, the drug cartels, and leftist guerillas. In Stranger to the Moon, Rosero has created another, more abstract, allegorical claustrophobia. Again, Rosero makes the dangers and the violence of the inequalities of Colombia clear, clearer really given this binary world inhabited by clothed, single sex people who dominate, violate, and torture the naked hermaphrodite people, who the clothed people hate but to whom they are attracted. The clothed people inhabit the outside, while the naked people inhabit a house. When a naked person must go outside, they will be most likely abused, tortured, or killed. The clothed people can enter the house to “party,” meaning that can pursue their attraction to/desire for the naked people and/or abuse, torture, or kill them with impunity. This sets up the conflict for the novel, which is narrated by one of the naked people. Rosero’s stripped down narratives seem to be the opposite of his fellow Colombian, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, whose novels like The Shape of the Ruins (2015) are incredibly historically specific. The two novelists pursue very different means of anatomizing Colombia

[Alejandro Salgado B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curiosa fábula del gran escritor colombiano, bastante experimental y exploratoria. Muy lejos de sus temas y estilo tradicional. Acá construye en una breve novela una universo alterno donde se enfrentan dos tipos de seres, quienes a la vez sirven de símbolos de asociación a diversos grupos o comunidades, quienes también se encuentran en permanente tensión, por diversas razones.
Me gustó mucho el planteamiento y la idea, pero ésta se va desgastando un poco hacia el final, y quizás hubiese funcionado mejor como un cuento. Aunque en cierta forma es un relato largo.
Pero es interesante leer al escritor desenvolverse con destreza por estos otros rincones literarios, aunque en cierta forma ya se ha asomado en algunas de sus novelas. La presencia de lo etéreo y lo onírico.

[Aidan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am surprised to see such low ratings for this book! It was a great and short story with amazing writing. It is a story of classes, where the "naked" people are used by the "clothed" people strictly for entertainment purposes. The naked people are abused, mocked, and tortured by the clothed people all for the purpose of entertainment. I found myself rooting for the main character throughout the entire book, as he seems to be the only naked person who yearns for more than just a plate of food. The one reason that I took one star away in my rating is that the story is just a bit hard to understand at places, and sometimes seems a bit unorganized and jumbled. Besides that, it is a great read and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a short, strange, and captivating story.

[Felipe Arango Betancourt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Los escenarios de Evelio Rosero tan singulares, tan únicos. Algunos son pueblos recónditos, encumbrados en lo más alto de las montañas, llenos de niebla y de ratas; otros, casas cerradas y ambientes claustrofóbicos, como esta novela, un espacio asfixiante, enfermizo y oscuro hasta las tinieblas.
Oprimidos y opresores, torturados y torturadores, dominados y dominadores, vestidos y desnudos; estos ejemplos sirven para mostrar y explicar una determinada sociedad jerarquizada, estratificada, un conjunto social piramidal que únicamente se entiende en relación a la dominación.

[YY · Rating 3 out of 5]

"My lips kissed my image on the cold mirror, and I experienced all of love, without any fear of losing that love, for I myself, with myself, was that love. For I do not wish to—nor can I ever—separate myself, not even through death. I am always indissoluble, she and he, me."

So much to latch onto in this brief brutal world but a lot of it is a simple stated fact - and somehow you must move on. No handle to really grasp it except for what you want to hold onto and bring forward with you and with some potent feeling (anger? fear? resolve? ecstasy?). The narrator shows you how.

[Juan Ramírez Jaramillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

La narrativa de Evelio Rosero es simplemente hermosa. Es un genio para la construcción de atmósferas, y aquí lo hace en forma magistral. Una alegoría muy kafkiana, con un quiebre de realidad que, curiosamente, respeta las reglas de la miseria y la crueldad humana. Una constante de Rosero es esa capacidad para llevar al lector a la claustrofobia de su texto, y en Señor que no conoce la luna se hace latente. Es enorme lo que logra Evelio con un lenguaje tan sencillo y a la vez preciso.

[Meg · Rating 1 out of 5]

I knew 15 pages in that this book just wasn’t for me, but its so short I just went ahead and finished. It’s an allegorical story about the conflict between “naked ones” who have two sexes and the “viscous clothed ones” who torture and attack the naked ones. The concept is interesting, and I wonder if it would have been more impactful in the original Spanish. Unfortunately, I found it to be rambling, repetitive, and extremely boring.

[Mica Biroccio · Rating 3 out of 5]

as a true hysteric, this reads to me (first) as a gender allegory, but it does feel like it could be read from a minority/economic disparity standpoint. it was strange but fun! maybe i wouldve liked it better if i read it in spanish

“The clothed ones are cautious and deceitful; they’ve persuaded our very cooks to despise us, as if they were just another bunch of clothed ones, voluntarily naked in order to control us.”

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

sooo strange and so evocative … reminded me of Omelas and other Le Guin parables. it would fit perfectly into a syllabus about postcolonial or genderqueer literatures. a brief novel but stunning in its darkness—would not recommend for christmas reading. torture and misery and oppression and shame and death all wrapped in the strange mesmerizing cocoon of this alternate reality. it feels wrong to say i enjoyed this, but it is an amazing work of fiction

[William Gutiérrez Botero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este debería ser un libro de esos que utilizan en las aulas para generar discusiones, es apto para ver mil caras, al final los desnudos somos todos (casi todos) en algún momento.

Difícil no ver la similitud con La Metamorfósis y sentir el mismo que sintió Gregorio Samsa.