The Topless Tower is Silvina Ocampo's most imaginative work, one which takes the canon of Western fantasy and turns it on its head. A cross between Alice in Wonderland and the short stories of Jorge Luis Borges, it packs a whole fantastical world into a swift fever-dream narrative.

The efforts of Leandro to escape the dreamlike tower where he has been spirited by the Devil are a key text of the South American surrealist movement.

The youngest of six daughters of a well-connected and cosmopolitan Argentinian family, Silvina Ocampo was born in Buenos Aires in 1903. Over a long and fruitful career spanning seven decades, she distinguished herself in many areas, most notably as a writer of short fiction and poetry, but also as a visual artist, as well as an author of novels and stories for children. Among many other honours, her work was recognised with the Premio Nacional de Poesía in 1962. She worked on a number of classic anthologies and collaborative projects, most notably with the writer Adolfo Bioy Casares (whom she married in 1940), and their mutual friend Jorge Luis Borges. She died in 1993.