Milton Fornaro

Argentina

Milton Fornaro was born in Minas, Uruguay, in 1947. In his country he is known as a scriptwriter of humorous television programmes and joint editor of a literary dictionary. Fornaro is the author of various collections of novellas as well as two novels. Si le digo le miento (“I would be lying if I told you”) won the Premio Grinzane Cavour Mercosur in 2005, an offshoot of the famous Grinzane Cavour in Italy, which was established in 1982 as a literary bridge between Europe and Latin America.

In 2006 he received the National Prize for Literature for his volume of short stories Murmuraciones inútiles (“Useless Mumblings”).

The beautiful Miss Mary is in despair. Should she surrender to the wooing of rich Burt Tracy and become his wife? Her father has confessed his fear of existence to her. He can no longer maintain the farm since an inexplicable epidemic is increasingly decimating his livestock. In the meantime she meets the attractive Andy Sullivan, however, there is a bounty placed on his head. He is linked to Burt Tracy by mutual hatred and Mary soon learns that it isn’t Andy who is the villain and things are not as they seem.

This entertaining persiflage on the classic Western is penned by the dissident Lucas, the true protagonist of Si le digo le miento. Its purpose is to fight the boredom in his hiding place but also to guarantee the attention of the woman who provides him with food and is his only link with the outside world. The prank seems to work and it even gets to the point where Lucas cannot cope with Miss Mary’s erotic desires.

But the increasingly pressing question is, who is actually using whom and with what intentions? Is Lucas’ situation really as perilous as his ex-girlfriend made it out to be when she blindfolded him and led him to his hide-out? Is the cellar in fact a refuge or rather a prison? One day the woman fails to show and Lucas very hesitantly tries to open the door. He finds it unlocked and the world outside is nothing like he expected.

Suspenseful, full of humour and with accurate side blows on various clichés as that of the macho, Milton Fornaro artfully interweaves two storylines and as always bears witness to Uruguay’s dictatorship.

This book is dangerous: Under the disguise of a light novel larded with humour, one discovers a false bottom that freezes the smile on the reader’s lips in bewilderment, even anguish.

Rosario Peyrou, El País Montevideo

Cadáver se necesita – Inútil sin experiencia (“Corpse needed – Useless without Experience”)”) is Fornaro’s latest novel set in a South American country, ruled by corrupt military forces: a crooked private detective becomes the victim of an international intrigue, involving both Vatican and Mafia. Humour, sarcasm and suspense in a crime novel, which captivates from page one.

Original editions and rights sold:

Novels:

Si le digo le miento, Montevideo: Planeta 2003, 335 p.

Italy: Nino Aragno

Cadáver se necesita - Inútil sin experiencia, Montevideo: Alfaguara 2006, 216 p.

Portugal: Quetzal 2009

Un señor de la frontera, Montevideo: Planeta 2009, 250 p.

Stories:

Murmuraciones inútiles, Montevideo: Alfaguara 2004, 228 p.