"Scliar is a world-class fabulist with a solid and distinguished oeuvre awaiting discovery by a larger audience. I've seen The Centaur in the Garden compared to works by Franz Kafka, Nikolai Gogol, Philip Roth, Mordecai Richler, and even John Updike. At its center is Guedali Tartakowsky, a Jewish centaur born into a family of Russian immigrants in Rio Grande do Sul. Scliar pushes the tragic destiny of Tartakowsky through an infusion of comedy. Its style is vintage Scliar: crisp, speedy, cinematic, succinct."--Ilan Stavans.