Heart of Tango

Elia Barceló Translated by David Frye

Heart of Tango is a ghost-cum-love story, slipping effortlessly between past and present in luscious prose that echoes the sinuousness of the dance itself.

The story glides smoothly between the present day and the early 1920s in the colourful La Boca district of Buenos Aires, a melting pot of recent immigrants, mainly from Europe. In the present day Rodrigo is among the growing number of tango addicts, seeking out milongas – places where people gather to dance the tango late at night – for relief from his stressful, globe-trotting job as a computing troubleshooter.