Antonio di Benedetto (1922–1986) began his career as a journalist, writing for the Mendoza paper Los Andes. In 1953 he published his first book, a collection of short stories titled Mundo animal. Zama (NYRB Classics) was his first novel; it was followed by The Silentiary (NYRB Classics), The Suicides, and Sombras, nada más . . . Over the course of his career he received numerous honors, including a 1975 Guggenheim Fellowship and decorations from the French and Italian governments, and he earned the admiration of the likes of Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, and Roberto Bolaño.
Esther Allen received the 2017 National Translation Award for her translation of Antonio Di Benedetto’s Zama. A cofounder of the PEN World Voices Festival in New York City, she teaches at the City University of New York Graduate Center and Baruch College, where she directs the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program.
