El Inesperado

El Inesperado (“The Unexpected One”) is a novel by Enrique Lafourcade, contemporary Chilean author, critic and journalist; published by LOM Ediciones, Santiago, Chile, in 2004, in Spanish.[1] It has been translated to English by the author’s daughter Nicole Lafourcade, poet and literary translator residing in the United States, but the English manuscript remains unpublished, except for a chapter presented online by literary magazine Letralia. [2]

First edition

In "The Unexpected One", Lafourcade reconstructs the years spent by French poet Arthur Rimbaud in the north of Africa. The novel evokes an enterprising and risky period in the poet’s life, at the end of the 19th century, when he travelled through Harar and Aden, among others places in North East Africa, places that were considered savage and exotic in Europe, seeking coffee and other products for commercialization. With a mysterious and intense air, the prose of the author recreates the atmosphere of boldness and danger, but also serenity - and in certain form, redemption-, where the poet unfolds. With the retained serenity of an asleep volcano which threatens to awake at any moment, and helped by the mystery and awe suggested by a foreigner who dominates the arts of local exchange, the ‘unexpected one’ (Rimbaud) evokes respect among merchants and smugglers, rough folks who could murder him at any moment and nevertheless accept his arduous and astute negotiation techniques.[3]

Lafourcade, admirer of the avant-garde spirit and innovation of the young poet, tells us: "It is certain: he was a damned boy, badly educated, insolent, loud-mouthed, audacious, a total creator, but he was also good: angel and devil lived together in him."[4]