The Invention of Morel is a novel by the Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares, published in Spanish in 1940 under the title La invencion de Morel by the Buenos Aires publisher Editorial Losada, with cover art for the first edition by Norah Borges. Although it was Bioy Casares's seventh book, he regarded it as the true beginning of his literary career, and it won the inaugural First Municipal Prize for Literature of Buenos Aires in 1941. The novel follows a fugitive hiding on a supposedly uninhabited island in Polynesia, whose fear of discovery when a group of tourists suddenly appears turns into obsessive, unrequited longing for one of them, a woman he cannot bring himself to approach, before he discovers a strange phenomenon on the island that makes ordinary contact with the visitors impossible and reshapes his understanding of what he is actually witnessing.
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Original Language AwardBuenos Aires Municipal Prize for Literature 1 Composed, From (Year) FAQs
Did The Invention of Morel inspire the film Last Year at Marienbad?
Many critics say so, but the screenwriter Alain Robbe-Grillet denied any influence.
Many film critics have said that the 1961 film Last Year at Marienbad was directly inspired by La invención de Morel. Its screenwriter, Alain Robbe-Grillet, denied that the book influenced the film, although he had read it and knew the work of Adolfo Bioy Casares. The link is therefore a long-running critical claim and not an acknowledged debt.
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Source Wikipedia: The Invention of Morel
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Source Wikipedia: The Invention of Morel
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Source Wikipedia: The Invention of Moreltier 2
Sources
1. Wikipedia: The Invention of Morel
WikipediaWikipedia Awards and nominations section, checked 2026-09-27
First Municipal Prize for Literature of the City of Buenos Aires, 1941
Lead
La invención de Morel (Latin American Spanish: [lajmbenˈsjon de moˈɾel]; 1940), translated as The Invention of Morel or Morel's Invention, is a novel by Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares.
Lead paragraph
La invención de Morel (Latin American Spanish: [lajmbenˈsjon de moˈɾel]; 1940), translated as The Invention of Morel or Morel's Invention, is a novel by Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares. It was Bioy Casares' breakthrough effort, for which he won the 1941 First Municipal Prize for Literature of the City of Buenos Aires. He considered it the true beginning of his literary career, despite being his seventh book.
Authored By: Adolfo Bioy Casares, Infobox, author field
Author: Adolfo Bioy Casares
In Genre: The Novel, Lead section
La invención de Morel (Latin American Spanish: [lajmbenˈsjon de moˈɾel]; 1940), translated as The Invention of Morel or Morel's Invention, is a novel by Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares.
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