Argentina
‘The public sector is the illness’: Javier Milei on his first year in office
Buenos Aires ‘I never wind down,’ says Argentina’s President Javier Milei when we meet in his Presidential Office at the…
Out of this world: The Suicides, by Antonio di Benedetto, reviewed
Written as Argentina descended into the Dirty War, this eerie fable about a reporter investigating a spate a suicides is thrillingly original
Doppelgangers galore: The Novices of Lerna, by Angel Bonomini, reviewed
A graduate from Argentina, offered a six-month fellowship in Switzerland, is appalled to meet – and have to live with - 24 versions of himself
Does bitcoin fit the definition of good money?
Three philosophers readily acknowledge the cryptocurrency’s shortcomings, but emphasise its one important function – as a means of challenging autocratic regimes
A football chant is causing problems for Javier Milei
When the final whistle blew and Argentina’s players celebrated another Copa America triumph – the icing on the cake of…
Javier Milei is torn between the West and China
Javier Milei pledged to ‘make Argentina great again’ when he took to the stage in February at the CPAC meeting…
Javier Milei’s radical reforms could start to heal Argentina’s economy
Argentina has spent most of its 200-year history in deficit; no other country currently owes the International Monetary Fund a…
40 years on, war still casts a shadow over the Falklands
Life on the Falklands, 40 years on
An ill wind in Buenos Aires: Portrait of Unknown Lady, by María Gainza, reviewed
How to review a book that pokes fun at critics? When the protagonist of María Gainza’s Portrait of an Unknown…
How Argentina conquered Malbec
When Napoleon III proclaimed himself Emperor of France in 1852, he unwittingly kickstarted quality wine production in Chile and Argentina.…
The Pope really doesn’t like Republicans
Last week we learned that Pope Francis has torn up the Catholic Church’s teaching that same-sex civil partnerships are gravely…
Is Lionel Messi the greatest footballer of all time?
If you don’t know who Lionel Messi is you won’t enjoy this book much. If you do, you probably will.…
Packing away my 35,000 books was like writing my own obituary
Alberto Manguel is a kind of global Reader Laureate: he is reading’s champion, its keenest student and most zealous proselytiser,…
César Aira returns to the evocative small-town landscape of his youth
The publication of César Aira’s The Lime Tree in Chris Andrews’s assured translation is a reminder that much of the…
Voices of exile
During the military dictatorships of the 1970s, exile for many Latin American writers was not so much a state of…
Portrait of the week
Home The Indian company Tata decided to sell its entire steel business in Britain, putting more than 15,000 jobs in…
Rodolfo González Alcántara is lord of the dance
‘Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough,’ said Gustave Flaubert. He might have been talking about this…
Sorry, America, but it looks like Joe Biden is your next president
I have a sinking feeling that Joe Biden might be the next president of the United States. In a brilliant…
There is good in every tree, says Thomas Pakenham — even the sycamore
I have never written much about the one-acre shaw of native trees I planted in 1994, even though it is…
Peru's Indians are repressed with more efficiency than blacks ever were in South Africa
In The Spectator of 21 March a column by Toby Young caught my eye. Discussing the pros and cons of…
Portrait of the week
Home Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, said that ‘a huge burden of responsibility’ lay with those who acted as apologists…
Oh joy! Sean Penn has tried to crack a joke
What a pleasure it is to see the Hollywood actor Sean Penn neck deep in PC ordure. The rodentine thespian…
I’ll take Jeremy Clarkson over a howling mob any day
Perhaps it’s a glaring and personal flaw in my observational skills, but if somebody tried to insult me via a…
Allergic to blockbusters? See Wakolda
Wakolda is not a sunny film for a sunny day, just so you’re aware, but as there is so little…
