Good morning to everybody! August brought very few literary news to Spain, however there are some that have remained at the end of the month which are the ones that I am going to show you below, although some from the beginning of September have also crept in.
"My Name is Lucy Barton" by Elizabeth Strout
Editorial Duomu - August 29 - 224 pages
Two women are in a hospital room talking for five days and five nights. Two women who have not seen each other for many years but whose conversation seems capable of stopping time. In this room and in this time, the two women are something old, dangerous and intense: a mother and a daughter who remember how much they love each other.
"Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
Editorial Hidra - August 29 - 544 pages
Leigh Bardugo returns with a Young Adult novel set in the world of Grisha. In this case a series of characters come together being the main Kaz Brekker, a crime genius who must gather a group of six people who have the necessary skills to be able to enter and exit the Ice Court, a fortress that has a secret that could blow up the balance of power in the world.
"Readings of the Hostages" by Yoko Ogawa
Editorial Funambulista - August 30 - 256 pages
In this story, a terrorist group takes hostage a group of Japanese tourists who are in a foreign country. As time goes by, the negotiations begin to become more complicated and the attention of the press and public opinion is declining, allowing everyone to forget the kidnapped tourists. Over the years, some recordings are discovered showing stories that each hostage wrote and then read aloud to the others.
"Within the framework of this moving story, he brings to life through the voices of beings over which the shadow of death hangs, a series of stories, some memories, that represent a legacy of life and hope."
"Compass" by Mathias Enard
Random House Literature - August 31 - 480 Pages
In his Vienna apartment, the musicologist Franz Ritter begins to evoke what he lived and learned while all his thoughts pass through Istanbul, Aleppo, Palmyra, Damascus and Tehran, places that marked a before and after in his life. Among all his memories, Sarah stands out, a woman with whom he fell in love 20 years ago and with whom he shared many of his great moments.
«Enard pays tribute to all those who, leaving for the Levant or the West, fell into the networks of difference to the point of immersing themselves in the languages, cultures or music they were discovering, sometimes even losing themselves in body and soul "
"The Girls" by Emma Cline
Editorial Anagrama - August 31 - 344 pages
Set in the summer of 1969 in California, Evie is shown, an insecure and lonely teenager who is about to enter the adult world. Evie comes across a group of girls in a park, girls who dress sloppily, barefoot and look happy and carefree. A few days later there is a meeting where one of the girls invites her to accompany them. This is the way in which Evie enters the world of psychedelic drugs and free love, mental and sexual manipulation that will cause the loss of contact with her family and the outside world.
"Three days and a life" by Pierre Lamaitre
Editorial Salamandra - September 1 - 224 pages
Three days and a life is a story divided into three moments divided in time: 1999, 2011 and 2015. In these times the reader is invited to accompany Antonie Courtin, a man who has been the victim of his own guilt.
This story begins in a small and quiet town where malicious comments, malice and insidiousness gather behind good intentions, elements that will be decisive for the gestation and outcome of Antonie's story.
«Perfect conjugation between the literary Lemaitre and the detective Lemaitre, Three days and a life combines a suspenseful story, where the tension does not subside at any time, with the richness of a prose that plunges us into a world of hidden emotions and invites us to reflect on the darkest face of the human condition. "