Abel Posse
The novelist's father, Ernesto Parentini, a porteño of Italian parents, was one of the founders of Artistas Argentinos Asociados and was the producer of the legendary feature film La guerra gaucha (1942), based on the text by the poet Leopoldo Lugones. The young Abel Posse grew up in the Argentine capital near Rivadavia street, and given his father's profession was exposed to the artistic and cultural milieu this most sophisticated of the South American capitals had to offer. The “Queen of the River Plate”, as Buenos Aires came to be known, fascinated the young man, (4) and his memories are evoked in his novel Los demonios ocultos (1987).
He was able to mingle with the glamorous stars of Argentine show business, like Chas de Cruz, Pierina Dealessi, Ulises Petit de Murat, Muñoz Azpiri, the writer of radioplays which were performed by Eva Duarte (de Perón), as well as the tango composers Aníbal Troilo and Homero Manzi. Such were the family connections to show business that one of his aunts, Esmeralda Leiva de Heredia, better known as “La Jardín”, was an actress friend of Eva Duarte. (5) Growing up in this environment enabled him to obtain an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of the tango repertoire and its culture, (6) which imbues his novel La reina del Plata (1988).
Abel Posse
He is the author of fourteen novels, seven collections of essays, an extensive journalistic work, together with a series of short stories and poems. His narrative fiction has received several distinguished awards. He received encouraging praise for his early novels, Los bogavantes (1970) and La boca del tigre (1971), for which he was awarded the Honour Sash of the SADE (Argentine Society of Writers) and third prize of the National Prize of Argentine Literature respectively. Worldwide acclaim came later for his “Trilogy of the Discovery of America” when he was recognised as one of the masters of Latin America's “New Historical Novel”. The first installment is Daimon (1978), a finalist of the Rómulo Gallegos Prize in 1982, which he was to win in 1987 for the sequel titled The dogs of paradise (1983). The last installment of the trilogy, El largo atardecer del caminante (1992) was honoured with the Premio Internacional Extremadura-America ’92 of the Spanish Commission for the Fifth Centenary of the Discovery of America. Posse has been the recipient of the Premio Internacional de Novela Diana-Novedades (Mexico) for El viajero de Agartha (1989) and the Literature Prize of the Argentine Academy of Letters (2002) for El inquietante dia de la vida (2001). Abel Posse's novels have been translated into 16 languages. In November 2012 he became an numbered member of the Argentine Academy of Letters.