Praise for "Blow-Up and Other Stories" "[Cortazar] is a unique storyteller. He can induce the kind of chilling unease that strikes like a sound in the night."--"Time""Julio Cortazar is a stunning writer. It is difficult to imagine how he could improve as a writer of short stories."--"The Christian Science Monitor""A glittering showcase for a daring talent . . . Julio Cortazar is a dazzler."--William Hogan, "San Francisco Chronicle""A first-class literary imagination at work."--"The New York Times Book Review""Cortazar displays throughout his stories the ability to elevate them above the condition of those gimmicky tales which depend for effect soley on a twist ending. His genius here lies in the knack for constructing striking, artistically 'right' subordinate circumstances out of which his fantastic and metaphysical whimsies appear normally to spring."--"Saturday Review"

JULIO CORTAZAR was born in 1914 in Belgium to Argentinean parents, grew up in Buenos Aires, and moved to Paris in 1951. An acclaimed and influential novelist, short-story writer, poet, playwright, and essayist, he was also a human-rights advocate and amateur jazz musician. He died in Paris in 1984.