Trafalgar

When you run into Trafalgar Medrano at the Burgundy or the Jockey Club and he tells you about his latest intergalactic sales trip, don't try to rush him. He likes to stretch things out over half a dozen coffees. No one knows whether he actually travels to the stars, but he's the best storyteller around, so why doubt him?

Trafalgar, a novel-in-stories, was originally published in Argentina in 1979. It starts off light and refreshing right from the very first short Who’s Who in Rosario listing for Trafalgar, although there are occasional clouds that pass through Trafalgar Medrano's bright and happy stories.

"This understated and impressive story cycle, written in 1979 by Argentinean author and World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Gorodischer (Kalpa Imperial), relates the adventures of intergalactic trader and coffee addict Trafalgar Medrano. When he meets with the unnamed narrators, he tells of his attempts to raise money by selling goods and services on other planets; most of his efforts end in improbable, hilarious disaster, such as being mistaken for Mandrake the Magician or finding a world that looks exactly like Earth—in 1492. The tropes are well-worn, but Gorodischer takes them in entertaining directions that both evoke their golden age roots and transcend them with a layer of absurdism. Gladhart’s translation spotlights Trafalgar’s dryly comic statements, like “I changed the course of history; nothing more than that.” Trafalgar’s adventures build on each other nicely, creating a collection that’s a joy to read."
—Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents

By the Light of the Chaste Electronic Moon

The Sense of the Circle

Of Navigators

The Best Day of the Year

The González Family's Fight for a Better World


--Interval with my Aunts

Trafalgar and Josefina

--End of the Interval


Mr. Chaos

Constancia

Strelitzias, Lagerstroemias, and Gypsophila

Trafalgar and I