July–August 2013 • 55 Greece, Trabzon, Iznik, Cappadocia, and Istanbul, where Byzantine legacies persist. If he is able to solve the complicated puzzle, he will be honored as “Emperor-in-Exile: Constantine Palaeologus XV,” but the story is so fascinatingly constructed that his actual quest for the Byzantine throne is not central to the literary gratification it provides readers. While giving a crash course to the reader on the Byzantine emperors, Halâs impresses the reader with his vivid descriptions of places he visits and astutely constructed images. He was looking at Tekfur Palace (the palace of Porphyrogenitus) in Istanbul, where he “was appalled by the sight of a palace that looked like a nun who’d been stripped of her garments, raped, then beheaded.” The novel also deserves appreciation for its narrator ’s witty sarcasm toward the politics of history through simple comparisons of both Turkish and European historical accounts about the Byzantine and Ottoman emperors. Brilliantly translated by Clifford Endres and Selhan Endres, the book presents an appealing and timely reconsideration of the precursor of the Ottomans in Istanbul, giving thorough credit to each of the empires. Its theme offers a compelling counterpart to the increasing number of contemporary Turkish fictional works focusing on the Ottoman world and emphasizes the undeniable cultural blend between the Byzantine and the Ottoman through our hero, who wonders “if [he] were Byzantine above the waist and Ottoman below.” Now in English, Altun’s novel rightly claims its place among the works of world literature through its brilliantly constructed plot and offers an intriguing read for readers and scholars of world literature. Fatma Tarlaci University of Texas, Austin Diego Cornejo Menacho. Las segundas criaturas. Madrid. Editorial Funambulista. 2012. isbn 9788494029325 What is most striking about Diego Cornejo Menacho’s third novel is how his proliferating imagination frees just about every known narrative component into daring versions of what a novel can do. This is particularly positive since he builds fiction from metafiction ,avoidingthetypicaltrapsofour abundantly solipsistic times. Cornejo’s inspired idea is to write an apocryphal and blatantly partial biography by defictionalizing “Marcelo Chiriboga,” purportedly an overlooked Ecuadorian Boom writer who kept appearing, Zelig-like, in novels and nonfiction by the real Boom writers José Donoso and Carlos Fuentes. Las segundas criaturas, one of the best novels of its type of the last thirty years, is superior to what Fuentes and Donoso could have done with their misfiring yarn. The dominant point of view is a Catalan literary agent’s who, like Donoso’s in The Garden Next Door, ismodeledontheBoommatriarchCarmen Balcells. Equally dominant is the refictionalized Jean Seberg, reclaimed from Fuentes’s Diana:TheGoddessWho Hunts Alone. Cornejo’s version has her leave Fuentes for Chiriboga, unsettling the connections between this novel and its Boom palimpsest. Fictional and real characters and events appear at will, including other recent writers and novels. Chiriboga is by now an exambassador in Rome and Paris, a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, a winner of the Cervantes Prize and others that Fuentes received and Donoso wanted. Translated widely, he lies dying. That is the core narrative for a young Ecuadorian from the provinces who becomes successful outside of his small country, and from that premise Cornejo’s novel becomes Celeste Augé Fireproof and Other Stories Doire Press In her debut collection of short fiction, Augé creates poignant and accurate outlines of women and their places in the world. Against the background of modern Ireland, she tells the stories of adolescents and mothers who must negotiate their identities while they aim for the elusive goal of happiness. Her writing is highly personal and rich in dialogue that animates her characters. Bernardo Atxaga Seven Houses in France Margaret Jull Costa, tr. Graywolf Press A diversion from Basque subject matter, the latest novel of Bernardo Atxaga depicts the spiritual darkness of the colonial Belgian Congo. A military captain pursues his poetic ambitions, and his fellow soldiers exploit the locals until the arrival of a new officer breaks the twisted mold. Translator Margaret Jull Costa recently won the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Nota Bene 56 worldliteraturetoday.org reviews more complex and ambitious. Hilarious and clever, Las segundas criaturas also reckons with the role...