Carlos Salem‘s “Argenol” Detective Novel: an Example of Transnational Novel

Abstract

Weary of the excesses of Raúl Alfonsín's government, in which he had placed great hopes, Carlos Salem (Buenos Aires, 1959) left Argentina in 1988. Since then, he has lived in Spain, first in Ceuta and Melilla and then, since 2000, in Madrid, where he decided to abandon journalism to devote himself to his writing career. “As a 'Hombre de dos orillas”, Salem seems to have resolved the question of his transnational identity by opting for an in-between position: he considers himself “argeñol, hombre de ninguna parte y de todas a la vez”. Unlike many of his compatriots who set the plot of their crime novels in their native Argentina, Carlos Salem has chosen to set his crime stories in Spain, and in particular in Madrid, which has become his adopted home. He is considered one of the most original voices of ultra-contemporary Spanish crime fiction. Despite this literary exile, Salem has not renounced his "Argentinianness": several characters of expatriate Argentines allow him to maintain a cultural and identity link with his native country within his detective stories. Moreover, the motif of travel is central to several of his novels, in particular Camino de ida, his first novel, which reproduces the author's journey between Argentina, Morocco and Spain. However, it is undoubtedly the author's transnationality, relayed by his characters who are themselves transnational, that allows him to take a new look at Spanish reality.