Five years after the death of Juan Forn, an anthology of profiles with a prologue by Mariana Enriquez is reissued

On the fifth anniversary of the death of writer, translator, and editor Juan Forn, who passed away at 61 in Mar de las Pampas on June 20, 2021, the Emecé publishing house has reissued "La tierra elegida." This anthology, a selection of his profiles curated by Forn himself, was first published in 2017. The new edition features a prologue titled "Bellas ficciones reales" (Beautiful Real Fictions) by writer Mariana Enriquez, whose first novel was published in 1995 under Forn's guidance.

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Juan Forn's office at Editorial Planeta, during the 90s, was like a small submarine - Outside it was always night or the windows were never opened. Or it had no windows. Or I don't remember any light. Like a bogartian private detective's cave, a space full of papers, ring binders and cigarette smoke in a big city building.

The volume compiles selected writings from Forn's earlier books: "La tierra elegida" (2005) and "Ningún hombre es una isla" (No Man Is an Island, 2010). It includes profiles and appreciations of diverse figures such as Fernando Pessoa, Hunter S. Thompson, Joseph Brodsky, León Ferrari, Vladimir Nabokov, Bruno Bettelheim, Mark Rothko, Isaac Babel, Miguel Briante, John Berger, Sándor Márai, and Nobel laureates Yasunari Kawabata and Gabriel García Márquez, among others.

Enriquez's prologue vividly describes Forn's editorial office at Editorial Planeta during the 1990s as a "small submarine," a windowless, dimly lit space filled with papers, manuscripts, and cigarette smoke. She recalls editing her first novel there, describing the atmosphere as akin to a Bogartian private detective's cave. She also recounts finishing the novel in Mar del Plata, near the abandoned summer house of Silvina Ocampo and Bioy Casares, a place that years later would inspire Forn's "chosen land."

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It was located on Avenida Independencia, one of the most desolate avenues in Buenos Aires, especially in that stretch near the 9 de Julio. With Juan I edited there, in that hovel, my first novel.

Enriquez also collaborated with Forn on the "Radar" supplement of the newspaper Página 12. She notes that Forn transformed the supplement into a significant milestone, similar to "Biblioteca del Sur," and that he realized real stories could and should be told as "beautiful fictions." For Enriquez, "La tierra elegida" foreshadows the intense and pleasurable reading style that made Forn famous through his "contratapas" (back-page columns) collected in four volumes titled "Los viernes" (Fridays).

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He realized that real stories could and should be told as 'beautiful fictions,' as Claudio Zeiger pointed out.