The Invention of Morel

Jorge Luis Borges declared The Invention of Morel a masterpiece of plotting, comparable to The Turn of the Screw and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Set on a mysterious island, Bioy's novella is a story of suspense and exploration, as well as a wonderfully unlikely romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious.

Inspired by Bioy Casares's fascination with the movie star Louise Brooks, The Invention of Morel has gone on to live a secret life of its own. Greatly admired by Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and Octavio Paz, the novella helped usher in Latin American fiction's now-famous postwar boom. As the model for Alain Resnais and Alain Robbe-Grillet's Last Year in Marienbad, it also changed the history of film.

The Invention of Morel stands as a masterwork of Argentine literature and a pioneering work of science fiction. Adolfo Bioy Casares crafts a meticulously plotted narrative that blurs the boundaries between reality and illusion, following a fugitive who discovers an island inhabited by mysterious, repeating figures. This philosophical novel explores themes of identity, mortality, and the nature of existence through its ingenious premise of a machine that captures and perpetually recreates human experience. A seminal text that influenced generations of writers, it remains essential reading for those seeking intellectually challenging fiction that transcends genre conventions.