Misery in Aries

Born in the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina, Isidoro Blaisten (also spelled Blaistein) moved with his widowed mother and extended family to tenement housing in Buenos Aires at the age of eight. Four years later, his older brother Enrique was killed in that city by Nazis. Blaisten eventually worked as a journalist, bookseller, photographer, and writer of poetry and fiction. He first found publishing success with his poetry, then turned to the humorous, absurdist short stories that began appearing in 1969. Blaisten was a member of the Argentine Academy of Letters and of the Real Academia Española, Spain’s official guardian of the Spanish language.