  We examine four high resolution reflection grating spectrometers (RGS)
spectra of the February 2009 outburst of the luminous recurrent nova LMC 2009a.
They were very complex and rich in intricate absorption and emission features.
The continuum was consistent with a dominant component originating in the
atmosphere of a shell burning white dwarf (WD) with peak effective temperature
between 810,000 K and a million K, and mass in the 1.2-1.4 M$_\odot$ range. A
moderate blue shift of the absorption features of a few hundred km s$^{-1}$ can
be explained with a residual nova wind depleting the WD surface at a rate of
about 10$^{-8}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. The emission spectrum seems to be due to
both photoionization and shock ionization in the ejecta. The supersoft X-ray
flux was irregularly variable on time scales of hours, with decreasing
amplitude of the variability. We find that both the period and the amplitude of
another, already known 33.3 s modulation, varied within timescales of hours. We
compared N LMC 2009a with other Magellanic Clouds novae, including 4
serendipitously discovered as supersoft X-ray sources (SSS) among 13 observed
within 16 years after the eruption. The new detected targets were much less
luminous than expected: we suggest that they were partially obscured by the
accretion disk. Lack of SSS detections in the Magellanic Clouds novae more than
5.5 years after the eruption constrains the average duration of the nuclear
burning phase.
