Books: Master of the Art of Surprise ; Reading Pictures: A History of Love and Hate by Alberto Manguel Bloomsbury, Pounds 30, 337pp; Argentina's Wandering Scholar Has Turned His Gaze from Words to Pictures. Amanda Hopkinson Takes a Trip across the Canvas

Beginning of article

Alberto Manguel apparently changes writing styles as frequently as he changes countries. He is a translator, journalist and literary critic, the author of a novel (News from a Foreign Country Came), a variant dictionary (The Book of Imaginary Places), one "history" (A History of Reading) and now a mutated sequel to the latter, Reading Pictures. He was raised in Buenos Aires of East European parents, has lived in Italy, Tahiti, Canada and England, and is now domiciled in a French parsonage.

It may help to remember when and why Manguel left his native Argentina. It was following the military coup of 1976, when a succession of generals were targeting students and …