"The Other" is a 1972

1972 in literature

The year 1972 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Fiction:*Richard Adams - Watership Down*Jorge Amado - Teresa Batista Cansada da Guerra *Martin Amis - The Rachel Papers...

 short story by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...

, collected in the anthology The Book of Sand

The Book of Sand (book)

The Book of Sand is a short story collection by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, published in 1975. According to the author's opinion, the collection, written in his last days , is his best book, an opinion not shared by most critics, who prefer his other works such as Ficciones.Referring to...

.

It is about a meeting between an older Borges and a younger Borges in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

. In the dialogue, the young man refers to the novella The Double: A Petersburg Poem

The Double: A Petersburg Poem

The Double: A Petersburg Poem is a novella written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The novella was first published on January 30, 1846 in Fatherland Notes....

by Dostoevsky. While the younger man cites his romantic vision about a brotherhood of man, the older Borges reveals his doubt about the existence of a single man. Following incorrect information that the first provides, elder Borges concludes that it is a real episode for him, but a dream for the younger.