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the tenth work of césar aira's to be translated into english (each published by new directions), conversations (las conversaciones) is another slim novella-length, genre-blending story from the prolific(!) argentine writer. fusing philosophy and film, conversations begins with a lively discourse between two friends about a recently viewed movie and evolves into a debate about verisimilitude and cinematic technique. no aira fiction would be complete, of course, without some amount of seemingly incongruous otherworldliness - in this case, mutant algaes, dehydrating water, and phosphorescent, floating goats. even when he's not at his best, aira's works always exude considerable charm, creativity, and playfulness, and so it is with conversations.

with some 60 books still untranslated, the aira universe still awaits further mapping for english audiences. he was recently shortlisted (with nine other authors, including edward p. jones, chang-rae lee, and haruki murakami) for the prestigious neustadt international prize - a biennial literature award given previously to garcía márquez, paz, tranströmer, djebar, mutis, and others.

stories that are told or written or filmed, whether they belong to the realm of reality or fiction, have to have qualities that makes them worthwhile, because they are neither facts nor natural occurrences. a rock along the side of the road, or a cloud, or a planet does not need to justify itself with its beauty or interest or novelty, but a story does. because stories are gratuitous and have no specific function, other than whiling away the time, they rely on their quality. inventiveness has to be maximized in each instance: each time, a new rabbit has to be pulled out of the hat. one recourse they use is verisimilitude. but not a static and narrow verisimilitude, which reality itself provides, but rather "emergency" verisimilitude, the one that arrives at the last minute, like firefighters with their sirens blaring, coming to the rescue in a dangerous situation.

*translated from the spanish by katherine silver (castellanos moya, sada, adán, borges, bernal, et al.).