A political fugitive flees to an island he believes deserted, the epicentre of a strange disease where only an abandoned museum shows signs of former life. But soon his existence is disrupted by the arrival of a group of tourists, seemingly friends. From a distance he observes their conversations and dinners, falling in love with the enigmatic Faustine as she watches the sunset each night and, confoundingly, ignores his attempts to speak to her. In fact, no one on the island notices his presence at all. The mysteries pile up: why do the tourists repeat the same conversations, play the same songs on loop? And why have two suns and two moons appeared in the sky? A cult novel that helped to usher in Latin American fiction's postwar boom after its publication in 1940, Morel's Invention is an unforgettable work: a metaphysical enigma, sci-fi romance and existential adventure about obsession, illusion, consciousness and time, published here in a brilliant new translation by Margaret Jull Costa.



Adolfo Bioy Casares (1914–1999) was born in Buenos Aires, the child of wealthy parents. He began to write in the early thirties, and his stories appeared in the influential magazine Sur, through which he met his wife, the painter and writer Silvina Ocampo, as well as Jorge Luis Borges, who was to become his mentor, friend and collaborator. His published works include Morel's Invention, A Plan for Escape, A Dream of Heroes and Asleep in the Sun. Bioy also collaborated with Borges on an Anthology of Fantastic Literature and a series of satirical sketches written under the pseudonym of H. Bustos Domecq.