César Bruto is a pseudonym for Carlos Warnes (1905-1984), an Argentinian journalist who wrote newspaper columns for years. His style of writing is humorous and cheeky.

The narrator of his book Lo que me gustaría ser a mí si no fuera lo que soy (What I would like to be if I wasn’t what I am) tells in no uncertain terms (and with the inevitable oversimplifications) how he would do things if he was a union leader, or a dentist, an inventor, a castle ghost, the chairman of a peace conference, a Saint Bernard dog, and so forth.

Benjamin Verdonck and Willy Thomas see the slightly absurd stories as a piling up of attempts to make sense out of life in an increasingly complex, absurd world. The universe, snow, people, sausage, fireflies, connections, tin can.

“My Uncle Aquilez says there are two kinds of inventors: those who keep on studying their whole lives long and those who suddenly invent something and that’s it. I would like to be a sudden inventor.”

- César Bruto