There are few of us who have heard of Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentinian short-story writer who lived and worked in the early 20th century. However, it’s hard to overestimate the gentle, but significant, contribution this author made to the history of Western fiction literature. The answer to who exactly Borges is, is an absolute phenomena.

And it’s not just a hooking statement to draw your attention. Frankly speaking, Borges’ approach of conveying his thoughts and weaving the threads of senses throughout his plots is something that knows no parallels.

Borges is a must-read author for those who have creative minds because his ability to see the world in such a specific way can help individuals come up with solutions to any problems they may be experiencing.

Here is the review of a few of Borges’ greatest tales.

The Garden of Forking Paths

The first story by Borges’ to be translated to English tells us about the last days of Chinese professor Yu Tsun who lived in the United Kingdom during the World War I. Yu Tsun is a German spy in disguise; he learned that he is about to fail his mission, and therefore has to release information about the location of the secret cache of British weapons as soon as possible.

While being chased by an agent who wants to kill him, he takes the train to the village where another famous doctor, Stephen Albert lives. Walking along forking paths in the woods on the way to Albert’s house, Yu Tsun starts to reflect on the life of his ancestor Ts’ui Pen, who abandoned his government job in order to write a book and to build his own intricate labyrinth for an unknown purpose.

Later, professor Albert says to Yu Tsun that he’s also familiar with the legacy of his ancestor and they commence a conversation on problems of simultaneous manifoldness of times.

“I leave to several futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths,” writes the first sentence of Ts’ui Pen’s book. This sentence sparks interest in the reader, and in such few words, leaves the reader with much to think about.

Trust me when I say this book has a brilliant finale that will leave you wanting more.

The Writing of the God

This is a deeply meditative narrative about an Aztec priest named Tzinacan, a prisoner tortured by Spanish invaders who has no other choice than to live with a jaguar in the adjacent cell. Tzinacan is possessed by the idea of finding “divine writing”, the certain key for understanding the world, which God could has left for His last server. This is the only priest’s entertainment in his stone cage. He believes that these writings can help him to seize total omnipotence and merge with the genuine nature of the reality.

Eventually he comes to a conclusion that the very pattern of the fur of his neighbor can be the clue. “What sort of sentence, I asked myself, would be constructed by an absolute mind,” Borges asks via this character. And we definitely should try to find the answer.

Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

This last story I want to familiarize you with is nothing but an attempt of the author to create his own world, but in the different way than most of the fiction writers do. And that’s the really amazing thing.

Borges is not simply giving us the names, events and creatures that reflect our everyday routine and fancy legends, but he presents us with a completely original description of the basic laws by which his world functions.

Tlön, Uqbar and Orbis Tertius, according to the text, are three forgotten lands that Borges himself allegedly found rare mentions of in the old books. The people in these lands don’t have any nouns in their languages and because of that perceive the universe as a constant flow of actions of qualities.

“A heterogeneous series of independent acts”, as the author states. Their reality cannot be considered a materialistic one, they can’t merely understand what “materialistic” means, and find ridiculous the very idea that one object can stay the same over time. The author did however go too far in his subjective idealism with towers of blood and transparent animals.

I don’t want to give too much of the narrative away, I solely want to give you an introduction to the plot.

This book is an easy, quick read and is a rebellion against common sense. This is a book, which makes the reader question exactly what common sense is.

This is an outstanding tale which no doubt can broaden your horizons and train your imagination.