It was a side mention by Gromovar that led me to buy this book a few weeks ago and read it swiftly once it got into my hands. La caverna de las ideas as the original title goes seems to be, on the face of it, a murder mystery set in the old Athens of Plato's time. A young ephebe dies in slightly puzzling circumstances, and Heracles Pontor, a decipherer of enigmas is called upon to investigate the apparently accidental death. There follows a classic though convoluted murder mystery. What makes this novel stand out though is that gradually as the novel progresses, we find in footnotes the puzzlement of the translator working on this antique original greek manuscript. He quickly determines that the novel is an eidesis, ie. contains a hidden message expressed through recurring images suggested rather than expressly written. Follows a second mystery happening entirely in the footnotes. There's a third layer of course hinted at by the title, around the existence of pure ideas and their shadows as these ideas are cast onto the world. Magnificent novel, somewhere at an improbable intersection of Agatha Christie, Umberto Eco and José Luis Borgès. The (poorly) translated English title is The Athenian Murders.
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