During the 1960's, Alberto Manguel, then a teenager, worked after school at a bookstore in Buenos Aires. One day, the legendary Jorge Luis Borges, who would come into the store after work, asked the young man if he would mind coming to his apartment to read to him in the evenings.

Borges, a giant of modern literature, had gradually become blind and could no longer read his beloved books. For several years, Manguel spent many evenings reading to the master of fiction he had studied at school. He witnessed the blind Borges' extraordinary ability to pick out from the shelf titles he knew he would enjoy simply by running his fingers along the spines of the books.

He discovered Borges' fondness for Sherlock Holmes, watched gangster movies starring James Cagney, and sat through West Side Story with him. But even as he visited Borges in his dark, comfortable apartment, reading out loud and talking about books, we glimpse the inner world of a literary legend. Illustrated by rare photos of Borges by Argentinian Sara Facio, this book is a remarkable window into the private life of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century.

Internationally acclaimed as an anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, and editor, Alberto Manguel is the bestselling author of several award-winning books, including A Dictionary of Imaginary Places, with Gianni Guadalupi, and A History of Reading. Manguel grew up in Israel, where his father was the Argentinian ambassador.

In the mid-1980s, Manguel moved to Toronto where he lived for twenty years. Manguel's novel, News from a Foreign Country Came, won the McKitterick Prize in 1992. During the 1990s, he wrote regularly for the Globe & Mail (Toronto), the Times Literary Supplement (London), the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Review of Books, the New York Times, and the Svenska Dagbladet (Stockholm). In 2000, Manguel moved to the Poitou-Charentes region of France, where he and his partner purchased and renovated a medieval farmhouse. Among the renovations is an oak-panelled library housing Manguel's collection of 30,000 books.

Célébrité internationale à plus d’un titre — il est anthologiste, traducteur, essayiste, romancier et éditeur — Alberto Manguel est l’auteur du Dictionnaire des lieux imaginaires, en collaboration avec Gianni Guadalupi, et d’une Histoire de la lecture, entre autres succès de librairie. Manguel a grandi en Israël où son père était ambassadeur de l’Argentine.

Au milieu des années 1980, Manguel s’installe à Toronto où il vivra pendant vingt ans. Il reçoit le McKitterick Prize en 1992 pour son roman News from a Foreign Country Came (Dernières nouvelles d'une terre abandonnée). Pendant les années 1990, il a été collaborateur régulier au Globe & Mail (Toronto), au Times Literary Supplement (Londres), au Sydney Morning Herald, au Australian Review of Books, au New York Times et au Svenska Dagbladet (Stockholm). Depuis 2000, Manguel habite la région française de Poitou-Charentes, dans une maison de ferme du Moyen-Âge qu’il a achetée et remise à neuf avec son compagnon. Parmi les rénovations, une bibliothèque lambrissée de chêne qui abrite les 30 000 livres de la collection de Manguel.

Alberto Manguel's profile page

This is a lovely book. It's an exquisite, tautly written memoir of the last years of one great writer, as told by another.

Edmonton Journal

...what ultimately binds Borges and Manguel as subject and author is that they see themselves as readers first and writers second. This is what makes With Borges so uniquely readable.

FFWD

Manguel dazzling reveals Borges by subtracting from the possible stories about him, allowing Borges to remain the grand puzzle he always was...Manguel's masterful book contains an eerie, lingering power...

Vue Weekly

For those who enjoy the written word, and especially for those who enjoy the fantastic writing of Borges, Manguel's book is confirmation of the pleasure that words can bring, whether to one of the greatest readers and writers of the 20th century or to a young man who would become one of  Canada's most acclaimed writers.

Georgia Straight