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This post is courtesy of judge, Scott Esposito. Scott Esposito blogs at and .

So here are some things that I���Ĵ�ý�ve reviewed, will review, or will do something with in some way at some point that I think are strong contenders for the 2013 .

First up: The Ingenious Gentleman and Poet Federico García Lorca Ascends to Hell by Carlos Rojas. Yep, that���Ĵ�ý�s the title, and it���Ĵ�ý�s a damn good book. It���Ĵ�ý�s very hard to summarize what this book does���Ĵ�ý�or how it does it���Ĵ�ý�so I���Ĵ�ý�m going to encourage you to just . Suffice to say, I like fiction that appropriates historical characters and/or incidents in interesting ways, and that���Ĵ�ý�s just what Rojas does here.

Hypothermia by Álvaro Enrigue. I have a review of this one in this week���Ĵ�ý�s Times Literary Supplement. Enrigue was someone whom I first discovered in Dalkey Archive���Ĵ�ý�s Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction. His ���Ĵ�ý�On the Death of the Author���Ĵ�ý� was the best thing in the book (which, I���Ĵ�ý�m pretty sure, ). Hypothermia was the book from which it came, and I���Ĵ�ý�ve been eager to read it ever since. Well, now I have, and it���Ĵ�ý�s a very strong book.

Seiobo There Below by Laszlo Krasznahorkai. I���Ĵ�ý�ll have a review of this publishing soon. It���Ĵ�ý�s my frontrunner at the moment for the BTBA. That���Ĵ�ý�s kind of a bold thing to say since we gave Krasznahorkai the award last year, but, god damn, this book is incredible. It���Ĵ�ý�s not fair. Maybe we should ban him for a few years if he takes the award two years running.

The End of Love by Marcos Giralt Torrente. I first found out about this book when Ethan Nosowsky of McSweeney���Ĵ�ý�s Press (and now back to Graywolf) asked me to write a report on it. I recommended it without reservation, and it���Ĵ�ý�s one of the best books I���Ĵ�ý�ve ever reported on. These four long stories (or maybe they���Ĵ�ý�re novellas) have a little of a Javier Marías thing going, a little Joseph Conrad, a little Henry James. They���Ĵ�ý�re remarkable. On Oct 22 I���Ĵ�ý�m going to be discussing just how great they are with their translator, the incredible Katie Silver in San Francisco.