Córdoba does not have the global literary reputation of Buenos Aires, but several writers worth reading are rooted here.
Manuel Mujica Lainez, Bomarzo (1962) — not set in Córdoba but written by an Argentine novelist who lived for years in the sierras and whose later books draw heavily on the landscape. Mujica Lainez retired to La Cumbre, in Córdoba province, and his house there is open as a museum.
Daniel Moyano, El trino del diablo (1974) — a strange and beautiful novel of music, exile, and provincial life, by a writer who taught at the Córdoba conservatory before being driven into exile by the dictatorship.
Andrés Rivera, La revolución es un sueño eterno (1987) — a fictional account of the death of Juan José Castelli, by a writer whose dense, political prose is rooted in Argentina's interior.
Hebe Uhart, Crónicas de un país lejano — short essays and travel pieces by a writer with a sharp, unsentimental eye for provincial Argentina, including several pieces set in the Córdoba sierras.
Roberto Arlt, The Seven Madmen (1929) — not specifically Cordoban, but the foundational novel of urban Argentine modernity. Worth reading before any extended stay in a big Argentine city.