The Slow Elephants of Milan

by Ángel Bonomini, Jordan Landsman (Translator)

Overview

Enigmatic fictions from a lost master of Argentine literature.

A thick fog rolls into Milan as a man watches in astonishment while a procession of elephants crosses the street. A couple wandering through a forest is pointed toward a mysterious city from which they may never return. Two prisoners share a cell in the aftermath of a battle—one finds freedom in writing stories while the other is driven mad with envy.

The Slow Elephants of Milan expands Ángel Bonomini’s exploration of the interstitial realms between dream and reality. Originally published in 1978, these surreal and enigmatic fictions are among Bonomini’s finest and most autobiographical, threaded together by an insatiable curiosity about time, memory, art, and the divine.

With delicate precision, The Slow Elephants of Milan deconstructs the scaffolding of our perceptions to reveal what lies beneath: a metaphysical mirror-world that shimmers with haunting familiarity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798893380484
Publisher:	Transit Books
Publication date:	06/16/2026
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Ángel Bonomini (1929-1994) is one of the great previously untranslated writers of Argentine fiction, a contemporary of Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Silvina Ocampo, and Julio Cortázar. His debut collection, The Novices of Lerna, was originally published in 1972, but Bonomini’s meditations on identity, surveillance, and isolation remain eerily prescient. In his lifetime, Bonomini was a two-time recipient of the prestigious Premio Konex. 

Jordan Landsman was born in New York City. After graduating from Binghamton University, he spent several years living in Buenos Aires, where he cocreated the BA Comedy Lab and taught literary workshops at Walrus Books. Ángel Bonomini's The Novices of Lerna was his first translation.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Ángel Bonomini:

"I’m so enthralled by the book that one night, when Borges came over, I proposed we read the only story I hadn’t read yet: “The Novices of Lerna.” We were dazzled. The story is admirably told, with much wisdom, everything is spot on.”—Letter from Adolfo Bioy Casares to Ángel Bonomini, September 18, 1972

“Bonomini’s imagination has a watercolor lightness that sets him apart from his contemporaries.”—Natasha Wimmer, The New York Review of Books

“Jordan Landsman's excellent first English translation of The Novices of Lerna offers the opportunity to rescue Bonomini from undeserved oblivion.”—Alberto Manguel, The Times Literary Supplement

"These surreal stories reckon with identity, perception, and existence... A beguiling blend of the cerebral and the visceral."—Kirkus Reviews

"[Bonomini] makes a noteworthy English-language debut with this entrancing collection."—Publishers Weekly

“A ghost of a book that haunts and perplexes, enticing each reader in with its mastery of language and craft.”—Asymptote

"Bizarre and brilliant… once I finished The Novices of Lerna, I wanted to turn back to the start and read it all over again."—John Self, The Telegraph

"Bonomini's fantastic collection [allows] the worlds of his stories to slither out and off the page, offer forbidden fruit, and shoot readers into a fallen and forgotten world where the real is absurd and the absurd is really the most true thing on offer."—The Rumpus

“Bonomini regularly turns language on its head while stubbornly refusing to engage in simple moralism. Instead, through a menagerie of passionate, obsessive, and deranged personae, he suggests that we are mysteries even to ourselves."—Buenos Aires Herald

"A welcome addition to Argentinian literature in translation—and to Weird fiction the world over."—Tobias Carroll, Reactor

From the Publisher