Labyrinths

Since it was first published by New Directions in 1962, Labyrinths has transformed and enriched our collective imaginations, introduced new possibilities for literature, and astonished generation after generation of readers and writers. This groundbreaking collection of stories, essays, and parables still serves as a perfect introduction to Borges’s imaginative universe: writing that is multilayered, paradoxical, recursive, elusive, and allusive; writing that has now come to be known as “Borgesian.”For countless readers in the past decades, including Pope Francis and Gabriel García Márquez, Umberto Eco and Ursula K. Le Guin, the stories contained in Labyrinths—“The Garden of Forking Paths,” “The Lottery in Babylon,” and “The Library of Babel”—introduced not only a monumental writer but a new way of thinking about literature and the modern world.

Jorge Luis Borges (1890-1982), Argentine poet, critic, and short-story writer, revolutionized modern literature. He was completely blind when appointed the head of Argentina’s National Library. James Irby is a translator and editor who specializes in modern Latin American Literature. He is a professor at Princeton University where he has taught Spanish and Portuguese Language, Spanish American Literature, Brazilian Literature, and comparative literature. Donald A. Yates (1930–2017) was an American professor, writer, translator, and editor