The Book of Sand

This collection of thirteen short stories written by Jorge Luis Borges provides the reader with a set of delicious narrative morsels within a very slim binding. It was originally published in Spanish with the title El libro de arena in 1975. The English version was published in 1977 and its ISBN is 0-525-47540-0. While all the stories are well worth reading I will talk briefly about the one for which the collection is named, The Book of Sand.

It is at the very least a story which leaves one scratching one’s head in wonder; at the most an experience which leaves one pondering whether one should purchase a ticket to Buenos Aires and go to the Argentine National Library to search for the story’s protagonist. The protagonist is a tome boasting an unique feature, the feature of infinite possibilities with the concomitant but unstated promise of universal knowledge. All within six short pages. Jorge Luis Borges is a master and in this story he crafts a brief tale whose imagery is like its theme, stark, haunting and incalculable.

A nondescript stranger appears at an aging misanthrope’s door selling bibles and what follows embroils the readers within its myriad possibilities. A story like no other, an experience with its denied “more geometrico” introduction, it leads the reader on an abbreviated journey into the quandary of the terrible infinite. After reading this story you will never look at door-to-door salesmen (which every day become less prominent anyway) the same way.

Of this story Borges remarked laconically, “A volume of incalculable pages.”

Of his writing in general he said, “I do not write for a select minority, which means nothing to me, nor for that adulated platonic entity known as “The Masses.” Both abstractions, so dear to the demagogue, I disbelieve in. I write for myself and for my friends, and I write to ease the passing of time.”

Jack fuller of the Baltimore Evening Sun stated, “The Book of Sand stands among the best of Borges’ books, and marks a return to the elusive and haunting prose of his earlier masterpieces such as Labyrinths and The Aleph."

One final note. Should you read this story in another collection or publication be aware that the translation may not be as deft as the one that appears in this volume by Norman Thomas Di Giovanni. Giovanni was Borges' personal assistant in Buenos Aires for a period of time and is generally acknowledged as the best translator of JLB's work.