||1: What those malign forces might be is more explicit in “7 Ways to Kill a Cat” by Matías Néspolo, another debut novelist of Mr Havilio’s generation. ||2: His shantytown tale from southern Buenos Aires, which recalls the “City of God” slum in the Rio favelas, is set during Argentina’s 2001 financial crash, with protesters defying tear gas, from teachers to lorry drivers. ||3: It opens in a barrio at the “wolf’s mouth”, where the asphalt and streetlights give out, with two peso-less youths butchering a cat for meat. ||4: As they become embroiled in a lethal turf war between drug lords, the narrator, Gringo , probes the mystery of his mother’s disappearance, and that of his cousin—a reformed gangster turned pavement hawker.

||1: 这些邪恶势力究竟是什么，《杀死一只猫的7种方式》（7 Ways to Kill a Cat）对此进行了详尽的记述。作者Matías Néspolo，与Havilio是同时代人，也是一位初次亮相的作家。 ||2:小说以2001年阿根廷经济危机为时代背景，当时从教师到卡车司机，都参与到抗议者队伍中，公然反抗警察镇压。这部窝棚区故事取材于布宜诺斯艾利斯南部，让人想到位于里约贫民窟的“上帝之城”贫民区。||3:故事在有着“狼口”之称的地区展开，这是柏油路和路灯的尽头，两个身无分文的青年为了填饱肚子正在宰杀一只猫。||4:之后他们卷入与毒枭争夺地盘的致命斗争，故事的叙述者Gringo对两起神秘失踪事件展开调查，一位是他的母亲，另一位是他的表兄——曾是一个恶棍，改过自新后成了街边小贩。

||1: Gringo , torn between moral scruples and the need to “look after number one”, learns that there are only two ways to kill a cat: civilised or savage. ||2: A police crackdown on the marchers prompts him to retaliate in what he sees as a “seriously civilised fashion”. ||3: One of the characters in “An Open Secret” claims bitterly that in Argentina, “the winners make history and the losers write it.” ||4: To judge from these novels that scour the past and mourn the future, it seems nobody won.

||1:Gringo在道德和“一己私欲”之间倍受折磨，他意识到杀死一只猫只有两种方式：文明的方式或野蛮的方式。||2:警察对游行者的镇压迫使他以一种自认为“极度文明的方式”展开报复。||3:《公开的秘密》中有人曾悲愤地说，在阿根廷“胜利者创造历史，失败者记录历史。”||4:纵观这些追寻过去、忧心未来的小说，这里似乎并没有赢家。

“You’d better put a lid or a net on that or they’ll get out, ” a passing gringo says.

“你该用个盖子或者网盖住，不然他们会跑出来，”一个路过的美国人说。

In other words, he is the quintessential insider, a man of gringo mannerisms and a representative of the rich in a poor country.

换句话说，他是典型的熟知内幕者，完全老美的行事作风，以及在贫穷国家的有钱人代表。

With their anti-gringo mindset, mineral wealth, and energy reserves, they are tempting targets for rising powers like China and Russia.

挟其反美立场、矿产资源和能源储备，他们很想以崛起的中国和俄罗斯为榜样提升其在国际社会的影响力。

It is the gringo “near abroad” , a destination for elderly Americans looking for a warm place to retire, though violence will stem the flow.

这是外国佬“周边区域”年长的美国人寻找的温暖的退休去处，然而，暴力将堵住这一流动。