"The Absent City takes the form of a futuristic detective novel. In the end, however, it is a meditation on the nature of totalitarian regimes, on the transition to democracy after the end of such regimes, and on the power of language to create and define reality. Ricardo Piglia combines his trademark avant-garde aesthetics with cultural and political insights into Argentina's history and contemporary condition in this work.".

"The novel follows Junior, a reporter for a daily Buenos Aires newspaper, as he attempts to locate a secret machine that contains the mind and the memory of a woman named Elena. While Elena produces stories that reflect on actual events in Argentina, the police are seeking her destruction because of the revelations of atrocities that she - the machine - is disseminating through texts and taped recordings.

The book thus portrays the race to recover the history and memory of a city and a country where history has largely been obliterated by political repression. Its narratives - all part of a detective story, all part of something more - multiply as they intersect with each other, like the streets and avenues of Buenos Aires itself."--BOOK JACKET.