When Fiorella suddenly becomes ill with a mysterious respiratory ailment, the doctors are baffled--barraging her with endless tests, futile treatments, and condescending medical jargon. Languishing in her hospital bed, the patient finds respite in a nineteenth-century novel her mother once read to a local landowner, and in reminiscing about her remote childhood village, as she urgently seeks connection between her past and her current condition. As her sickness drags on, hallucinogenic visions bring to life a memorable cast of characters: delusional aristocrats, beloved cats, anarchist revolutionaries, compromised priests, unicorns, spies, vampires, and more.
First published in 1986, this epic novel is a semiautobiographical portrait of Armonía Somers's battle with chylothorax--suffocation as lymph fluid fills the lungs--and her experience as a woman battling medical authority. Witty, philosophical, and eccentric, Only Elephants Find Mandrake is a masterpiece of South American literature from one of Uruguay's most fascinating writers.
About the Author: Armonía Somers (1914-1994), the pen name of Armonía Liropeya Etchepare Locino, was a Uruguayan feminist, pedagogue, novelist, and short story writer. She is also the author of The Naked Woman.
Kit Maude is a Spanish-to-English translator based in Buenos Aires. His translations have been featured in Granta, the Literary Review, and the Short Story Project, among others.
