Blow-Up and Other Stories

Fifteen stories drawn from three of Cortazar’s early collections, translated by Paul Blackburn. Among them are some of the most celebrated short stories in any language: a man who slowly becomes an axolotl, a photographer who discovers something sinister in his pictures, a motorcyclist caught between two realities, a family driven from room to room by an unseen presence.

Why Start Here

Blow-Up and Other Stories gives you the full range of what Cortazar can do in compact form. “Axolotl” is a masterpiece of identification pushed past the point of sanity. “The Night Face Up” flips between a hospital bed and an Aztec sacrifice with terrifying elegance. “House Taken Over” is one of the most perfect horror stories ever written, built entirely on restraint. “Blow-Up” itself, the story that inspired Antonioni’s film, is a meditation on seeing, knowing, and the limits of both.

These stories work because Cortazar never signals the moment when the ordinary tips into the strange. There is no fanfare, no Gothic setup. The shift happens mid-sentence, mid-thought, and by the time you notice, it is too late. You are already inside the story’s logic, and there is no way back.

What to Expect

Short, intense stories that move between realism and the fantastic without warning. The prose is clean and precise, the pacing deceptively casual. Some stories are unsettling, some are funny, some are both. They are best read one at a time, with space to breathe between them.