This is the story of the tormented love affair between Martin and Alejandra. She is unapprehensible, strange and cruel. Martin loves her passionately, but she despises him and treats him really bad. Her father is a paranoid who spends his life studying the blind and feeling chased by them (Sabato, like Saramago, is also obsessed with blindness). This is a complex book about dark and obnubilated minds, lost in a chaos of doubts and insecurities, of tragedy, solitude and mistery.

Although the treatment of the plot is interesting, especially the chapter on blindness, I found the characters unlikable. I don't agree with people that don't like books because the characters were unlikable. Then we should only write books about nice persons. But these characters were utterly irritating. Perhaps, though, you can find real depth and meaning in the book.

This book of Ernesto Sabato is a masterpiece. The narrative ability to lead the reader through the conflictive love story between Martin and Alejandra, reveals, at the same time, the understanding of the complexity of human beings.

I have never read a book that touched me as much as this one. It is a must read for lovers of compex stories and dense psychology. One of the finest gems of Latin American literature that can not be missed. Read it once, and you'll be changed for life.

El gran Sábato escribió esta vez un libro pequeño. Los que hayan leído otros sus libros de ensayos y novelas van a encontrar muy pocas novedades, o ninguna. Además no repite el nivel de las excelentes notas autobiograficas que se mezclan en "Abbadon, El Exterminador".

He leido este libro y me gusta mucho, porque Sabato me parece muy sincero, habla de sus errores en su juventud, y de cambios en sus filosofias personales. En Buenos Aires en 2001, este libro fue tambien disponible en unas tiendas como un "audio libro," (libro para escuchar), leido por Ernesto Sabato. Despues de leerlo, tambien lo escucho. Es muy interesante de oir su voz. Frecuentemente escucho este libro (mas de 15 veces).
This is an excellent book in the form of an autobiography with a filosofical and humanistic pulse, describing his stormy moods, passions, ideals, and beliefs lived during his artistically inclined youth, and their changes from middleage to his old age.

I think Sabato is one of the best writers of our times. I'm reading his books again and again and this experience is always incredible.

I want to know if his last book was translated in English or in French...I can't wait to read it. I'm afraid, also, of what Ms. Sabato has to say in the end...Probabily I will rate it with 5 stars...

If you have informations about the translations of Antes del Fin, please contact me at: diana.lefter@flonetwork.com

After reading "The Tunnel", the last thing I expected from Sabato was an optimistic and mystical reflection like the one in "La Resistencia". Still, Sabato is in his 80s, and being 22, it seems like I'm a long way behind from the ways of a senior and very wise novelist.

Very entertaining, easy to read, and will give you another dimension of modern life.

But "The Tunnel" is a much better book.

This book is not his best, but even though you can see whatever you look that it has the "mark of Ernesto". Sabato penetrates in this book, as always, into the deepest aspects of human being.

You can take this album as a way of "resiting and surviving"...

Sabato really struck a strong chord with me. Not only was the writing sentimental, which can be expected from an octogenarian, but surprisingly it was also forward-thinking.

When I began couldn't help but expect a book-long rant from an old man saying how much technology and TV were tools of the devil, and that things just weren't how they used to be. Then I noticed that Sabato did not indulge in that sort of easy answer to the obvious-but-overlooked downfalls of the technology age. He clearly wrote of the greatness of our age, and the inevitable weakness that accompanies that success. For many of us who owe our salaries and financial stability to technology, this book speaks like a conscience. It speaks like an open door to someone who gets their cast off today.

Beautiful porten~o Spanish. Straight-forward talk. This is an inspirational book.

-Brigham.