The latest addition to my website is César Aira‘s Fulgentius. The eponymous hero of this book is a sixty-seven year old Roman general. He is setting out on his latest campaign – he has already been on over a hundred – this one to Pannonia (Eastern Europe). One thing distinguishes him from most generals. When he was twelve he wrote an autobiographical tragedy – a new genre in Roman tragedy – initially meant as a pastiche of Roman tragedies, but which took on a more serious tone as he was writing it. It was praised by his tutor but then forgotten till someone, unknown to him, revived it thirty years later. He now takes it on his travels and has it performed at every town he halts at during his campaign, very concerned about how it is performed. We follow the performances and his campaign, during which he thinks, as we might expect from Aira, about a lot of things, even though he hates philosophy. This is somewhat different from the usual Aira book but, as always, an interesting read.