... a multilayered exploration of ideas of belonging, language and erasure ... Austral is a masterly voyage of discovery, both physical and intellectual.
Besides historical events and stories, in this novel readers find photographs, notes and sketches that meld to create an intricate mosaic, a chronicle of human experience ... Fonseca writes eloquently about the immigrant perspective because he’s experienced it firsthand ... At times, one gets the sense that Fonseca is telling us we are losing the world, our worlds, and in the process, our ability to remember and honor our past, but I believe he’s inviting us to explore the world beyond the novel’s pages.
... in spite of the potential of this evocative material, the novel is essentially bloodless. At no point are we given an opportunity to engage with Gamboa or the other characters, who seem like hollow ciphers for the ideas that are Fonseca’s real interest. In this the author has not been helped by his translator (Megan McDowell) or editors, whose frequent errors are frustratingly distracting ... Austral is at its strongest when most conceptual ... Unfortunately, without the proper groundwork, these moments seem more likely to pass readers by.
This is a complex book that’s often more conceptual than concrete, and despite Megan McDowell’s accessible and artful translation that likely mirrors the accessible and artful way Fonseca writes, a reader might find herself (as I did) having to go over passages again ... The road of this finely crafted work leads readers in numerous directions, the purpose of the journey as chimerical as memory itself.
... intense and intricate... elegantly translated by McDowell ... Excerpts from Abravanel’s manuscript, italicized text, photos, drawings, and typewritten scraps of paper enliven this tour de force.
... stunning ... Fonseca brilliantly interrogates the notion that, as Yitzhak states in his journal, "Repeating the past is a way of doing it justice." This is an evocative excavation of memory, loss, and legacy.
The reader may feel much like Julio does when reading Aliza’s manuscripts: "too many possible points of entry, too many coded trajectories." But as a study of the confusions of history and the challenge of language to get the story right, it’s an admirably complex, intellectually searching work.
