Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

A Note on the Translation
Arlt’s Dedication to Ricardo Guiraldes
1. The Band of Thieves
2. Works and Days
3. Mad Toy
4. Judas Iscariot

Appendix. The Neighborhood Poet
Notes
Works Cited

About the Author

Roberto Arlt (1900–42) was an Argentine writer who published numerous plays and novels during his lifetime.

Reviews

"Arlt's influence on figures like Borges, Cortazar, Onetti, and Piglia is substantial-and equally so are his literary reverberations today, when his grim, sordid view of life seems to speak louder than ever before. "-Ilan Stavans "Roberto Arlt is the greatest Argentine writer of the twentieth century."-Ricardo Piglia "With a novel such as Mad Toy, brimming with fantasy and romance, yet pulling the rug out from under the protagonist-and the reader-at every turn, it seems clear that Arlt's purpose is not just to tell a good story. Along the way, he also illustrates the uses of fantasy and humour. Fantasy, transforming the sordid into the beautiful, makes life seem sweeter; humour, exposing the illusions of fantasy, makes wisdom tolerable."-from the Introduction

"Arlt's influence on figures like Borges, Cortazar, Onetti, and Piglia is substantial-and equally so are his literary reverberations today, when his grim, sordid view of life seems to speak louder than ever before. "-Ilan Stavans "Roberto Arlt is the greatest Argentine writer of the twentieth century."-Ricardo Piglia "With a novel such as Mad Toy, brimming with fantasy and romance, yet pulling the rug out from under the protagonist-and the reader-at every turn, it seems clear that Arlt's purpose is not just to tell a good story. Along the way, he also illustrates the uses of fantasy and humour. Fantasy, transforming the sordid into the beautiful, makes life seem sweeter; humour, exposing the illusions of fantasy, makes wisdom tolerable."-from the Introduction