Leave it all up to me (Dejen todo en mis manos)

Leave it all up to me (Dejen todo en mis manos)

Novel
Penguin Random House , 2007
121 pages

Published by

Spanish Penguin Random House/  France Éditions de L’Arbre/ Italy La Nuova Frontiera / Israel Tésha Neshamot

A fairly unsuccessful writer who finds himself in a somewhat desperate financial situation is offered a deal by an editor. The company will give him an advance and publish his novel if he can discover the whereabouts of a certain Juan Pérez who had earlier sent them an exception manuscript from Penurias,a town far from the capital, without a return address. The writer accepts the assignment, and in his improvised role as a detective, travels to the town to try to locate the person behind theapparent pseudonym.

From this moment on, suppositions and investigations get all mixed up in his adventures as a writer turned detective: his contacts with the town prostitute, with the old, now retired school teacher, with the local columnist, with a rather impassioned amateur poetess, with a childhood enemy and with an enchanting travel companion who in the end is to help him solve the mystery of the unknown writer.

Written under the guise of a detective novel with abundant doses of humour.

Written in the style of a fake thriller with a great amount of humour. One has to admit that the plot in Levrero’s writing is skilful and compact and possesses a fluency and an expertise which show in natural acrobatics that allow him to jump from one scene into the following one. Francesca Lazzarato, Il Manifesto

Dejen todo en mis manos is beautiful, meaningful, and important….it is not only a good way to spend some time, but also provides us with keys for understanding a part of the savage spirit of our times….  Hotel Kafka

Levrero has an extraordinary ability to recreate kafkaesque situations, dialogues and monologues that provoke the laughter in the reader, which will find him or herself unable to move away from the book until the liberating final. Corriere della Sera

It looks like a sui generis novel by Chandler or one by Kafka. Vittorio Giacopini, Il Sole 24 ORE