The Book of Sand (short story collection)

The Book of Sand

First English edition (publ. Dutton)
Author	Jorge Luis Borges
Original title	El libro de arena
Translator	Norman Thomas di Giovanni
Language	Spanish
Genre	Fantasy, horror, science fiction
Publisher	Emecé Editores
Publication date	1975
Publication place	Argentina
Published in English	1977
Media type	Print
Pages	181

The Book of Sand (Spanish: El libro de arena) is a 1975 short story collection by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. In the author's opinion, the collection, written relatively late in his career — and while blind — is his best book.^[1][2] This opinion is not shared by most critics, many of whom prefer his other works such as those in Ficciones (1944).

Referring to the collection, Borges said:

I have wanted to be loyal, in these exercises of a blind man, to the example of Wells: the conjunction of a plain style, sometimes almost oral, and an impossible argument.^[3]

The first edition, published in Buenos Aires by Emecé, contained 181 pages. In Madrid it was edited that year by Ultramar.

Borges opts for an epilogue to this short story collection, different from the cases of his previous collections The Garden of Forking Paths (1941) and Artifices (1944) (later republished together in Ficciones), which had a prologue. Regarding this, Borges begins The Book of Sand's epilogue by saying: "To prologue unread stories is an almost impossible work, as it demands the analysis of plots one should not anticipate. I prefer, thus, an epilogue."^[4]