Doppelgangers galore: The Novices of Lerna, by Angel Bonomini, reviewed

Resurrection has become its own literary genre. Though hardly a new phenomenon (Moby-Dick, for example, was out of print at the time of Herman Melville’s death), the success of such ‘forgotten’ classics as Suite Française, Stoner and Alone in Berlin proved that an author’s death and/or obscurity were no barrier for readers. So publishers from Faber to Virago, from the British Library to Penguin Modern Classics are hunting through back catalogues looking for writer recommendations, searching for the next unjustly lost voice. In Angel Bonomini, Peninsula Press has found an ideal candidate.

How can such a powerful story have remained un-rediscovered for so long?

A contemporary of Borges, Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo, Bonomini was, in life, well-regarded as a writer and poet, winning several Argentinian and international awards. But after his death in 1994, he drifted into obscurity in his native Argentina and remained untranslated into English. Reading The Novices of Lerna, you can both see why and also wonder how such a powerful story has remained un-rediscovered for so long.

The novella’s voice – self-important, self-doubting, self-lacerating sometimes – belongs to Beltra, a recent graduate who is invited by the University of Lerna in Switzerland to apply for a six-month fellowship. It is a generous offer and one that answers many of his post-university financial and romantic troubles. However, the strange and cloying tone of letters from the university, and the astonishing level of detail required on the application form, give him significant pause. ‘Visiting Europe,’ Beltra writes ‘is something that every Argentine keeps in reserve as an unquestionable inheritance.’ And so he accepts, despite his misgivings.