Bookforum Talks with Daniel Alarcón
"I don’t ever plan and I don’t ever know where I’m going. I think one of the magical things about writing a novel or any work of art is the plan that reveals itself while you were improvising. There was always a structure there; it’s just that for many many months I couldn’t see it. It’s almost like the Michelangelo metaphor about finding the sculpture that’s embedded within the piece of marble."
At Night We Walk in Circles, Daniel Alarcón’s new novel, is set in an unidentified South American country of great contrasts, turmoil, and beauty. The plot revolves around Nelson, a young actor who is selected to go on an improbable tour to the provinces for an anniversary revival of “The Idiot President,” a absurdist play written by Henry Nuñez, one of the leaders of the long-defunct insurgent theater group Diciembre. In an intricate narrative that is part love story, part travel log, and part thriller, the characters of At Night We Walk in Circles are gradually consumed in a vortex where life