{"product_id":"the-presidents-room-9781999722722","title":"The President's Room","description":"\u003cp\u003eA taut, appealing, and often quite funny exploration of existential angst.\"\u003cstrong\u003e--\u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a nameless suburb in an equally nameless country, every house has a room reserved for the president. No one knows when or why this came to be. It's simply how things are, and no one seems to question it except for one young boy.The room is kept clean and tidy, nobody talks about it and nobody is allowed to use it. It is for the president and no one else. But what if he doesn't come? And what if he does? As events unfold, the reader is kept in the dark about what's really going on. So much so, in fact, that we begin to wonder if even the narrator can be trusted...Ricardo Romero has been compared to Franz Kafka and Italo Calvino, and we see why in this eerie, meditative novel narrated by a shy young boy who seems to be very good at lying about the truth. Following in the footsteps of Julio Cortázar and a certain literary tradition of sinister rooms (such as Dr Jekyll's laboratory), \u003cem\u003eThe President's Room\u003c\/em\u003e is a mysterious tale based on the suspicion that a house is never just one single home.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRicardo Romero\u003c\/strong\u003e was born in the province of Entre Ríos, in northern Argentina, in 1976, and now lives in Buenos Aires. Between 2003 and 2006 he ran the literary journal \u003cem\u003eOliverio\u003c\/em\u003e and between 2006 and 2010 he was one of the members of \u003cem\u003eEl Quinteto de la Muerte\u003c\/em\u003e (The Lethal Quintet), with which he published two books: \u003cem\u003e5\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eLa Fiesta de la Narrativa\u003c\/em\u003e (The Fiction Party).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCharlotte Coombe\u003c\/strong\u003e is a British literary translator, working from French and Spanish. Her translation of Abousse Shalmani's \u003cem\u003eKhomeini, Sade and Me\u003c\/em\u003e (2016) won a PEN Translates award. She has translated novels by Anna Soler-Pont and Asha Miró, Marc de Gouvenain, as well as some non-fiction, short stories and poetry by Edgardo Nuñez Caballero, Rosa María Roffiel and Santiago Roncagliolo for \u003cem\u003ePalabras Errantes\u003c\/em\u003e . She is also the translator of Eduardo Berti's novel \u003cem\u003eThe Imagined Land\u003c\/em\u003e (2018). She has translated three titles for Charco Press: Ricardo Romero's \u003cem\u003eThe President's Room\u003c\/em\u003e (2017) and Margarita García Robayo's \u003cem\u003eFish Soup\u003c\/em\u003e (2018) and \u003cem\u003eHoliday Heart\u003c\/em\u003e (2020).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Charco Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50493386096914,"sku":"9781999722722","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_149eca86-a4ec-4862-9d7f-a500e4297020.jpg?v=1730645713","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-presidents-room-9781999722722","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}