“A timely work about watching the forces of history roil forth from the confines of one’s own home. Sergio Schmucler deftly explores the illusion of control we cultivate in childhood and cling onto through adulthood, and offers the possibility of letting go of it at last. A poignant novel full of grace.” — Maria Reva, author of Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize finalist Good Citizens Need Not Fear
“In Jessie Mendez Sayer’s superb translation, The Guardian of Amsterdam Street introduces English-language readers to an important and deeply humane writer. Though Sergio Schmucler’s short novel elapses within just a few blocks in Mexico City — and then within a few rooms — its scope is large, encompassing history, exile, justice, fate, and love, while featuring seamless cameos by major historical figures. Schmucler’s vision, or revision, of a certain Argentinian revolutionary is especially striking and memorable.” — Steven Heighton, Governor General’s Literary Award–winning author of The Waking Comes Late and Reaching Mithymna
“This brief, brilliant novel is no more straightforward than the Mexico City street it’s named for. If you’ve ever wandered through the La Condesa neighbourhood, you’ve likely crossed Amsterdam Street at least several times without meaning to, for it’s an ellipse rather than a straight line — you seem to keep meeting it every few blocks. In The Guardian of Amsterdam Street, by turns surreal, satirical, allegorical, and deeply engaging, a small boy tries to leave home, but each time he does he ends up where he began. As the novel proceeds with the wonderful illogic of a melancholy fairytale, Amsterdam Street becomes a clock, a history of Mexico, the world, and finally an infinity symbol. We lose ourselves, thoroughly, delightfully, as we learn the elliptical and eventually vertiginous joys and sorrows of a street without end.” — Will Aitken, author of Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize finalist Antigone Undone
“Austere yet sweeping … Schmucler touches broad themes: religion and the power and abuses of the Catholic Church, revolution and repatriation, and the responsibility we have to our ancestors, to remember but also to move on.” — On the Seawall
“A deeply human book … Sergio Schmucler achieves a paradox of rare beauty: writing a book about exile that tells the story of someone who has decided not to leave his home.” — La Voz
“Humour, longing, love, sadness … A study of mankind that Schmucler reveals to the reader in The Guardian of Amsterdam Street.” — Arte y Cultura
