Excerpt 1 “A woman can’t enter the mine,” Pedro Villca tells me. “Can you imagine? The woman has her period and Pachamama gets jealous. Then Pachamama hides the ore and the seam disappears.” Villca is an old miner, an unlikely combination in Bolivia. He’s 59 and none of his comrades have made it to his more »
Author archives: Tim
The Swallow (Guillem Clua)
RAY What stories did you mean? EMILY What? RAY Earlier. When I recognized Danny in the photo, you said I would have heard the stories; that everyone knew about it. EMILY Yes, I’m afraid so. In fact, I’m surprised you don’t. RAY About Danny’s accident? EMILY It wasn’t an accident. I don’t know why I more »
IDIOTA (Jordi Casanovas)
DOCTOR EDEL Did you hide the letters so your wife and your daughter wouldn’t find out? TONY Shut up. DOCTOR EDEL Did you hide them? TONY Yes. Fuck. What else do you want? Do you want me to confess? I applied for the fucking loan to open the bar. They rolled out the red carpet, more »
Mejor la ausencia (Edurne Portela)
Literary fiction, published in Spanish in September 2017 by Galaxia Gutenberg (Barcelona), 240 pp. Mejor la ausencia is a compelling coming-of-age story set in 1980s Bilbao against the backdrop of domestic violence, petty crime and political conflict, told through the eyes of an absolutely engaging first-person female narrator: Excerpt 1 (1979) We reach the huts more »
Las madres negras (Patricia Esteban Erlés)
Excerpt 1 (Mida): Mida tells herself that maybe she shouldn’t take too much notice of the hazy girl (what was her name, Humility?) who told her about the wolves, because in the convent everyone invents things as they search for an explanation, just as everyone who crosses the threshold or dies eventually disappears and becomes more »
Oriente medio, oriente roto (Mikel Ayestaran)
The black Mercedes 300 parks in the middle of what was once a square. Sandbags block any further progress. It’s raining and very cold. As soon as we step out of the car, we hear the first shot in the distance. “Yalla, yalla!” shouts the driver, urging us to be quick. I follow Richard and more »
Los extraños (Vicente Valero)
Whether that man whom nobody ever called grandfather or even father – despite his having been a grandfather and thus a father as well – had thin, bony hands like mine and thick, dark eyebrows, or the propensity, of which I complained so much in my youth, towards cold sores, is something I have never more »
Los estratos (Juan Cárdenas)
From the window I can see the pool, surrounded by houses that are identical to my own, my neighbours’ children swimming as the evening sun draws the last glimmers of light from the water. Perhaps it is the contentment of the scene – the children shouting, the swallows, the splashing – sounds which, far from more »
Hijos del Nilo (Children of the Nile, Xavier Aldekoa)
Narrative non-fiction. Published in Spanish in 2017 by Ediciones Península (Barcelona). 306 pages. In Children of the Nile, the prizewinning Spanish journalist Xavier Aldekoa sets off on a journey to trace the Nile from its source at Lake Victoria all the way to the Mediterranean. However, this is not some modern boys’ own adventure following in more »
Rukeli (Carlos Contreras Elvira)
EVA ROLLE To an unseen interviewer. The whole thing backfired. It was his pride that made him win that fight. The more they tried to crush him into oblivion, the harder he fought, and instead of forgetting about him, people couldn’t get him out of their heads. HERMANN SCHULZE (old) more »