Ornamental

A scientist recruits volunteers for the trial of a new recreational drug that exclusively affects women. Among them is "number 4," who becomes emotionally involved with first the scientist, then his wife, a well-known visual artist in the midst of a creative crisis. The scientist is oblivious to the atrocities his new drug will bring to the city; his wife is oblivious to the superfluousness of the objects she committed her life to exhibiting in galleries and museums. Number 4's presence pierces the couple's complacency, gradually undoing the many certainties they've accumulated in their lives of ease.°°°Juan Cárdenas is a Colombian art critic, curator, translator, & author of seven works of fiction, including his novel Los estratos, which received the Otras Voces Otros Ámbitos Prize. He has translated the works of such writers as William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Gordon Lish, David Ohle, J.M. Machado de Assis, and Eça de Queirós. Cárdenas currently coordinates the masters program in creative writing at the Instituto Caro y Cuervo in Bogotá, where he works as a professor and researcher.Lizzie Davis is a translator, a writer, and an editor at Coffee House Press. Her recent projects include Juan Cárdenas’s Ornamental & The Devil of the Provinces, a finalist for the 2021 PEN Translation Prize; Elena Medel’s The Wonders, co-translated with Thomas Bunstead; & work by Valeria Luiselli, Pilar Fraile Amador, & Aura García-Junco. "Ornamental is Juan's third novel, but it will be his first translated into English. It follows a scientist who recruits a group of volunteers for the trial of a new recreational drug that only affects women. Among them is "number 4," who becomes emotionally involved with first the scientist and then his wife, a well-known visual artist in the midst of a creative crisis. The scientist is oblivious to the atrocities his new drug will bring to the city just as his wife is oblivious to the superfluousness of the "ornaments" she has made her life's work exhibiting in galleries and museums: they've both gained prominence as "designers of artificial emotional states." But number 4's presence in their lives pierces their complacency, gradually undoing the many certainties they've accumulated in their position of social and economic privilege. Ornament invites readers to consider the points of tangency between collective, political histories and individual lives, along with the possibilities and impossibilities art offers as a field for examining evil"-- Provided by publisher A scientist recruits volunteers for the trial of a new recreational drug that exclusively affects women. Among them is "Number 4," who becomes emotionally involved with first the scientist and then his wife, a well-known visual artist in the midst of a creative crisis. The scientist is oblivious to the atrocities his new drug will bring to the city; his wife is oblivious to the superfluousness of the objects she has made her life's work exhibiting in galleries and museums. Despite prominence as designers of artificial emotional states, Number 4's presence in their lives pierces their complacency, gradually undoing the many certainties they've accumulated in their lives of ease.