First published in 1956, Zama is now universally recognized as one of the
masterpieces of modern Argentinean and Spanish-language literature.
Written in a style that is both precise and sumptuous, weirdly archaic and
powerfully novel, Zama takes place in the last decade of the eighteenth century
and describes the solitary, suspended existence of Don Diego de Zama, a highly
placed servant of the Spanish crown who has been posted to Asunción, the capital
of remote Paraguay. There, eaten up by pride, lust, petty grudges, and paranoid
fantasies, he does as little as he possibly can while plotting his eventual
transfer to Buenos Aires, where everything about