The Book of Sand

This article is about the short story. For the short story collection in which it was published, see The Book of Sand (book).

"The Book of Sand"

Author	Jorge Luis Borges
Original title	"El libro de arena"
Country	Argentina
Language	Spanish
Genre(s)	Fantasy, short story
Published in	The Book of Sand
Media type	Print
Publication date	1975
Published in English	1977

"The Book of Sand" (Spanish: El libro de arena) is a 1975 short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986). It has parallels to the same author's 1949 story "The Zahir" (revised 1974), continuing the theme of self-reference and attempting to abandon the terribly infinite.

The story was first published in 1975, in Spanish, as the last of 13 stories in a book of the same name. The first English translation – by Norman Thomas di Giovanni – was published in The New Yorker; the entire volume The Book of Sand (ISBN 0-525-47540-0) first appeared in English in 1977.

Plot summary

An unnamed narrator is visited by a tall Scots Bible-seller, who presents him with a very old cloth-bound book that he bought in India from an Untouchable. It is emblazoned with the title "Holy Writ", below which title is emblazoned "Bombay",^[1] but is said to be called "The Book of Sand"..."because neither the book nor the sand has any beginning or end". Upon opening it, he is startled to discover that the book, which is written in an unknown language and occasionally punctuated by illustrations, is in fact infinite: if one turns the pages, more pages seem to grow out of the front and back covers. He trades a month of his pension and a prized "Wiclif Bible"^[1] for the "Book of Sand" and hides it on a bookshelf behind his copy of One Thousand and One Nights. Over the summer, the narrator obsesses over the book, poring over it, cataloging its illustrations, and refusing to go outside for fear of its theft. In the end, realizing that the book is monstrous, he briefly considers burning it before fearing the possibility of the smoke of an infinite book suffocating the world. Instead, he goes to the National Library where he once worked (like Borges) to lose it among the basement bookshelves, reasoning that "the best place to hide a leaf is in a forest".

Adaptions

The story (retitled The Sandbook) was turned into an experimental dance piece by Esther Linley's dance company for the 1994 Donaufestival in Austria. The soundtrack to the piece was written by German musician Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Roedelius also featured as an actor in the piece.^[2]

The story was adapted by the Saudi filmmaker Bader Al-Homoud in his online film^[3] and was selected as an Official Honoree in the 18th Annual Webby Awards.^[4]

The Dutch composer Michel van der Aa created for the 2015 Holland Festival a digital interactive song cycle based on this story, with Kate Miller-Heidke as performer.^[5]

References

1 2 "The Book of Sand". bookofsand.net. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
↑ Painting with Sound: The Life and Music of Hans-Joachim Roedelius (ISBN 0-9545995-0-0
↑ فيلم كتاب الرمال Book of sand short film - YouTube. 28 November 2013 – via YouTube.
↑ http://pv.webbyawards.com/2014/online-film-video/general-film-categories/drama-individual-short-or-episode/honorees
↑ INTERNATIONAAL PODIUMKUNSTENFESTIVAL. "Holland Festival".

External links

The Book of Sand, English translation
The Book of Sand, English translation interactive version

Jorge Luis Borges

Bibliography

Original
collections

A Universal History of Infamy	"On Exactitude in Science"

Ficciones	"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" "The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim" "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" "The Circular Ruins" "The Lottery in Babylon" "An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain" "The Library of Babel" "The Garden of Forking Paths" "Funes the Memorious" "The Form of the Sword" "Theme of the Traitor and the Hero" "Death and the Compass" "The Secret Miracle" "Three Versions of Judas" "The End" "The Sect of the Phoenix" "The South"

The Aleph	"The Immortal" "The Dead Man" "The Theologians" "Emma Zunz" "The House of Asterion" "Deutsches Requiem" "Averroes's Search" "The Zahir" "The Writing of the God" "The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths" "The Wait" "The Aleph"

Otras Inquisiciones (1937–1952)	"The Analytical Language of John Wilkins"

Dreamtigers	"Borges and I"

Dr. Brodie's Report	"The Encounter" "The Gospel According to Mark"

The Book of Sand	"The Other" "Ulrikke" "The Congress" "There Are More Things" "The Disk" "The Book of Sand"

Shakespeare's Memory	"Blue Tigers" "Shakespeare's Memory"

Other works

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