6 Andrés Neuman Books to Enhance Your Spanish
Andrés Neuman books are known for their authenticity and poetic narrative. The Argentinian author has earned several accolades and continues to write for well-known media outlets.
Keep reading for a breakdown of the top 6 Andrés Neuman books that will enhance your Spanish language skills and advance you to the next level of fluency.
Build up Your Spanish With Engaging Literature
Using out-of-the-box, creative resources like Spanish literature is highly motivating and cultivates productive habits.
Reading Spanish poems, novels, short stories, and the best books fast-tracks language learning and has multiple benefits. Initially, reading in Spanish allows you to grasp a higher comprehension of Spanish vocabulary and grammar.
What’s more, it improves your capacity to actively write, read, listen, and speak in Spanish.
The narrative of Spanish literature is also ideal for improving your semantic and contextualization abilities in a foreign language. It expands your capacity for critical thinking and analysis.
Spanish-speaking authors write in a fluid, authentic fashion and use idiomatic expressions naturally.
If you’re an intermediate or advanced Spanish learner, Andrés Neuman books are a fantastic gateway for you to start reading Spanish literature!
Life and Work of Andrés Neuman
Andrés Neuman was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1977. He is the son of Argentinian musicians who raised him in the marvelous city of Granada, Spain. His family went under exile due to Argentina’s political instability and Military dictatorship.
As a teenager, Andrés Neuman worked as a little league soccer coach, a Latin professor, and a salesperson at a curtain shop. He studied Spanish philology and also worked as a professor of Latin American literature in the University of Granada.
Andrés Neuman rose to the spotlight in 1995 for his participation in the Alfaguara National Story Contest. He published his first novel, Bariloche, in 1999 when he was only 22 years old. His first masterpiece made him a finalist for the Premio Herralde (Herralde prize) and placed the novel among the top Andrés Neuman books.
In 2009, his novel El viajero del siglo (The Traveler of the Century) earned him an Alfaguara Novel Prize. Additionally, Spain’s media outlet, El País, shortlisted it in the top 5 Spanish language novels.
Andrés Neuman books use a simplistic language and are short. They’re non-fictional stories, tales, blogs, anthologies, novels, and poetry, and are famous for having theoretical appendixes that study gender.
Andrés includes fragments of thoughts and memories, and his characters are known for adapting to circumstances and for following unconventional storytelling. His narrative combines poetry, essays, and uses short art norms known as aphorisms.
To this day, Andrés Neuman books have been translated to over 14 different languages and continue to earn him awards and recognition around the world.
Top 6 Andrés Neuman Books for Spanish Learners
1. Bariloche (1999)
Bariloche is the first published novel by Andrés Neuman.
The novel tells the tale of Demetrio Rota, a garbage man from Buenos Aires who sleeps during the day and has a life headed for exhaustion. The main character revisits his memory by putting together puzzles every night. He embodies the average middle class person in Argentina and how they are destined to a degrading and complicated lifestyle. The novel also provides a perspective of life in a big city.
Overall, it’s not a cheerful story and targets a more mature audience. The book however is short and easy to read as it uses a poetic narrative and accessible vocabulary.
2. Life in the Windows – La vida en las ventanas (2002)
La vida en las ventanas (Life in the Windows) is a staple among many Andrés Neuman books that highlight his take on the modern world.
The fictional novel tells the tale of Net, a young college student who finds a daily escape from life by spending his time on the internet. Net communicates through emails with a former girlfriend and family, who in turn often ignore his messages The story also talks about Net’s complex relationship with those around him.
His troubled life and anguish unfolds throughout the narrative. The novel explores the complex relation between humanity, social media, privacy, and online communications. The book’s title references the multiple windows we interact with through computer screens. It’s a short novel and it’s written as a collection of emails and letters. It’s a highly recommended book to read considering the ongoing evolution of humanity’s relation to technology.
3. Once Upon a Time Argentina – Una vez Argentina (2003)
Una vez Argentina (Once Upon a Time Argentina) is a fictional autobiography inspired by Andrés Neuman’s life and upbringing.
The novel is written in prose and uses a mixed language that adapts to the age group of the different stages characters in the book experience.
The plot tells the story of a family of immigrants from different backgrounds who are building a life in an unknown country. It highlights the different nationalities that populated Argentina in the turn of the century.
The book’s narrative is highly entertaining and carefully intertwined with Argentina’s history. It evokes feelings of nostalgia, emotion, and deep reflection.
Get another dose of Hispanic literature and history with this list of 11 Hispanic culture books.
4. The Traveler of the Century – El viajero del siglo (2009)
El viajero del siglo (The Traveler of the Century) is one of the most appreciated and popular Andrés Neuman books. This masterpiece is available in multiple languages and earned him the Alfaguara Novel Prize.
El viajero del siglo focuses on Hans, a traveler who encounters new friendships and an ambitious love story. The book has received a lot of praise for its humorous, entertaining, and intriguing plot.
The story takes place in Germany in the 19th century. The narration occurs from a 21st century perspective that compares the global past and present. It analyzes current social dynamics like migration, linguistic differences, cultural diversity, gender roles, and female liberation.
5. The End of Reading – El fin de la lectura (2011)
El fin de la lectura (The End of Reading) is a collection of 25 short stories that cover a wide diversity of topics linked to human relationships.
The stories are fictional and focus on love, family, language, death, guilt, and other themes. The book is short and follows an easy-to-read narrative for intermediate Spanish learners. It’s full of humour and evokes feelings of compassion for those who read it.
6. Fracture – Fractura (2018)
Fractura (Fracture) is among the best and newest Andrés Neuman books. This literary work of art earned him an Alfaguara prize and a Critics Choice Award.
The story focuses on Mr. Watanabe, a survivor of the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan. The main character finds himself under a nuclear threat yet again when he experiences the Japan earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011.
The author also gives space in the tale to a group of 4 women who know Mr. Watanabe and share his stories with an Argentinian journalist. The plot is proof that unfortunate situations happen at the same time, under multiple contexts, and all over the world.
Fractura focuses on empathy, humour, and human resilience towards natural disasters. It also highlights those wonders a disaster may bring in the aftermath. It’s a long novel that I would only recommend to advanced Spanish learners.
Expand your reading list with this blog post on 6 Eduardo Sacheri books to elevate your Spanish.
Start Reading in Spanish
Work on your Spanish learning motivation by getting your hands on one of these powerful Andées Neuman books.
Reading in Spanish stimulates your critical thinking and capacity of retaining new vocabulary. Another excellent way for upgrading your Spanish abilities is engaging with native speakers in conversation.
Sign up for a free class with our certified teachers from Guatemala and allow them to support you in improving your Spanish with meaningful and fluid conversations.
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