Buenos Aires in the second half of the twentieth century is the setting for the adventures of Señor Arenas, an unusual and engaging hero. The place is Las Violetas, a dark and dusty hotel in the city where the lives of the sweetest and most fascinating of characters are complicated by a web of intrigue. Señor Arenas’ meeting with the hotel manager; a small, good natured moustachioed man, sets things off. From there a unique relationship develops between Arenas, an insomniac hypnotist, and the humble manager as he tries to treat his new friend’s sleeplessness.

Juan Sáenz Valiente and Pablo De Santis offer their readers an excellently drawn contemporary social fresco in which psychoanalysis of the characters is in truth the psychoanalysis of a society. Complicated subjects are approached ironically, with simplicity, skill and plenty of ingenuity.