March 18: Megan McDowell—The Mysterious Disappearance of the Marquise of Loria

Presented by 192 Books, Megan McDowell in conversation with Zito Madu about her translation of José Donoso’s The Mysterious Disappearance of the Marquise of Loria (New Directions, 2025)

This event will take place in person at 192 Books at 192 10th Ave on Tuesday, March 18th at 7:00 PM ET. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. The discussion will also be streamed directly on this page. There is no login required. A recording will be archived.

Books will be available for sale after the conversation.

José Donoso—The Mysterious Disappearance of the Marquise of Loria (tr. Megan McDowell, New Directions, 2025)

The daughter of a middling Nicaraguan diplomat posted to Madrid, Blanca Arias marries, at the age of 19, the equally young and passionate Marquess of Loria, her darling Paquito. Paquito, as if on cue, dies of diphtheria, leaving the young Marquise alone, free, and inconceivably rich. A parodic paean to the literary erotica of 1920s Madrid, this luxurious and disturbing work details the sexual awakening of the Marquise of Loria as her white-gloved chauffeur shuttles her from tryst to tryst. But it’s not all champagne and roses: Blanca’s mother-in-law, Casilda, is scheming with her gang of sycophants to take back “their” fortune from this newly-minted Loria.

José Donoso (1924–1996) wrote novels, novellas, short stories, and poetry. He worked stints as a shepherd in Patagonia and a stevedore in Buenos Aires before studying at Princeton and teaching at the Iowa Writers Workshop. He was twice a Guggenheim Fellow and won the William Faulkner Foundation Prize as well as Chile’s highest literary honor, the National Literature Prize.

Megan McDowell lives in Santiago, Chile. She has translated many of the most important contemporary Spanish-language authors, including Alejandro Zambra, Samanta Schweblin, Mariana Enríquez, and Lina Meruane. She has been nominated four times for the International Booker Prize, and was the recipient of a 2020 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She won the 2022 National Book Award in translation alongside Samanta Schweblin for Seven Empty Houses.

Zito Madu is a Nigerian American writer living in Brooklyn. He is the author of the surrealist memoir The Minotaur at Calle Lanza.