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.