Another SMOKE review, ARKANSAS INTL

The inventor of the ball point pen. A diseased dictator. Flocks of giant, flightless birds. These are but a few key characters in Gabriela Alemán's hazy, fragmented Smoke (2025). Published by City Lights Books, this novel weaves together the past and present of Paraguay, overlaying them like translucent, cloudy paper. The book asks: who remembers history, and how? How do the personal and political intersect? And, how can a narrative interrupt itself to portray these things in all their nonlinear glory? To quote Alemán, "Being a keeper of the past is like being the guardian of white smoke..."
 
Alemán's blend of history and fiction is a potent one. Translator Dick Cluster makes careful effort to capture the the mix of languages pulsing in the source text — yet more threads overlaid in history's tapestry. This is how the author invites us to see place and people. It's all there, all happening at once. Smoke reminds us that history is not yet over.
 
-- Masha Kurbatova, THE ARKANSAS INTERNATIONAL, June 2026
mix of languages pulsing in the source text — yet more threads overlaid in history's tapestry. This is how the author invites us to see place and people. It's all there, all happening at once. Smoke reminds us that history is not yet over.