Sonia meets Knut in an online literary forum and begins a long-distance relationship with him that gradually turns to obsession. Though Sonia needs to create distance when Knut becomes too absorbing, she also yearns for a less predictable existence. Alternately attracted to and repulsed by Knut, Sonia begins a secret double life of theft and betrayal in which she will ultimately be trapped for years.

Scar (Spanish Literature)

Literature & Fiction

Mesa, Sara

Literary

Dalkey Archive Press

Review\n“With short, propulsive chapters, Sara Mesa creates an unforgettable gothic landscape, centered on the mysterious and menacing Wybrany College, that twists in ways that unsettle and thrill. In Four by Four, Mesa’s sentences are clear as glass, but when you look through you will be terrified by what you see.”—Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel\n“The atmospheric unraveling of the mystery will keep you turning the page; the ending will leave you stunned—Mesa’s Four by Four is a tautly written literary thriller that juxtaposes the innocence of children with the fetish of control; a social parable that warns against the silence of oppression and isolation through its disquieting, sparse prose.”—Kelsey Westenberg, Seminary Co-op\n“Stylistically, Four by Four’s narrative structure is both dazzling and dizzying, as its perfect pacing only enhances the metastasizing dread and dis-ease. . . . Mesa exposes the thin veneer of venerability to be hiding something menacing and unforgivable—and Four by Four lays it bare for all the world to see.”—Jeremy Garber, Powell’s Books\n“Very few authors evoke a visceral reaction with prose in the way that Sara Mesa does. . . . Four by Four sounds an alarm on the dangers of power, privilege, and the self-delusions told in order to hide complicity. A work of high gothic art, Four by Four solidifies Mesa as one of the strongest female voices in contemporary Spanish literature.”—Cristina Rodriguez, Deep Vellum Books\n“Menace pervades Sara Mesa's prose. . . . For the novel's first three-quarters, she lets a sense of wrongness simmer and grow, creating suspense so strong I could barely set the book down. She deftly mixes immersive narration and relentless creepiness with incisive class commentary; by the novel's end, I was appalled both for its characters and for my own world.”—Lily Meyer, NPR\n“This is a linguistically precise, stylistically spare and emotionally devastating look at the corrosive effect of abuse and power imbalance, perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson and Samanta Schweblin.”—Cindy Pauldine, Shelf Awareness, starred review\n“Like Buñuel’s Exterminating Angel, or even Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, the rich are left rotting in a swamp of their own design. . . . Four by Four is an uncomfortably real look into the absurd world of the bourgeoisie. It is so complex and layered that, to reach a full understanding, one may have to read it two or even three times. Not a single character, after all, is what they seem.”—Noelle Mcmanus, The Women’s Review of Books\n“A meticulously constructed and chilling study of desire and influence.”—Kirkus Reviews\n“Mesa presents a painful exploration of inequity, cruelty, and the immeasurable cost of belonging.”—Terry Hong, Booklist\n“Sara Mesa. Don’t forget that name. The finalist for the 30th Premio Herralde de Novela. Read it. Share it. Talk about it. Open the book and begin. You won’t be able to put it down.”—Uxue, Un libro al día\n“Mesa’s tale seeps into you with cold, Pinter-esque menace. It fills you with increasing dread as you realize that you need to see where the story is headed even as you suspect you are powerless to stop the pages turning towards a dark revelation.”—Merril Speck, Short Stories Bookshop\n“Sara Mesa has brought a new narrative voice to the scene that is in a position to bear important fruit for the genre of the Spanish novel in the twenty first century. Already in Four by Four an author has been discovered with the capacity for artistic integration of different stylistic registers within the same novel and with a real talent for representing reality. Four by Four is an account of the sinister relationships of power corrupted by fear and latent violence that feed this social parable of Kafkian roots.”—Ángel Basanta, El Mundo\n“What can I say about a story in which everything works? . . . A new author that will surprise us further in future.”—Sergio Sancor, Libros y literatura\n“Sara Mesa’s prose has gradually strengthened,

Four by Four

Open Letter

Casi, who is almost fourteen years old, has been skipping school and spending her days hidden among the hedges in a local park, listening to music and reading women's magazines. One day, Viejo, a fifty-year-old man, stumbles upon her hiding place, and the two strike up a friendship. He tells her about birds and Nina Simone, buys her soda and chips, and spends almost every day talking with her. Despite their age gap, there's something childlike about Viejo that leads Casi to believe that he's not like the other men she's encountered, the "dangerous ones." But Viejo has a number of secrets in his past--all of which would be of grave concern to Casi's parents or any other adult who witnessed one of their rendezvous. As these secrets rise to the surface, the clock is ticking, the weather is growing cold and the school is untangling Casi's set of lies, setting up a moment where something has to give. With spare, direct prose, Sara Mesa imbues these two outcasts with a great deal of warmth, raising questions about society's prejudices and assumptions, and creating a truly moving novel of an "inappropriate" relationship.

Among the Hedges

From the author of the highly acclaimed Four by Four and Among the Hedges comes a collection of unsettling, captivating stories. The eleven stories in this collection approach themes of childhood and adolescence, guilt and redemption, power and freedom. There are children who resist authority and experience the process of growing up with shock, and loneliness; alienated young girls whose rebellion lies under the surface--subterranean, furious and impotent; people who are tormented--or not--by regret and doubt, addicted to feelings of culpability; men who take advantage of women and adults who exercise power over children with a disturbing degree of control; kids abandoned by their parents; the suicide of the elderly and the young; lives that hide crimes--both real and imagined. Eschewing cosmopolitanism in favor of the micro-world of her characters, Mesa depicts a reality that is messy and disturbing, on even the smallest scale of an individual life, a single family.

Bad Handwriting (Spanish Literature Series)

Subtly in the vein of Dogville or Coetzee's Disgrace, and invoking the works of Agota Kristof, Un Amor probes ideas of language, alienation, and community through the eyes of a woman who, when brought into conflict, finds herself on the potential brink of deeper awareness of herself and her place in the world. On the heels of a cryptic mistake, Nat arrives in La Escapa, an arid rural village in Spain's interior. She settles into a small, shabby house with cheap rent to begin work on her first literary translation, with a skittish and ill-tempered dog--a gift from the boorish landlord--her only company. Burdened with assumptions about country life, Nat will enter into relationships with the handful of local inhabitants--her negligent landlord, Píter the hippie, the dementia-afflicted Roberta, the young city family who comes on weekends, the unsociable man they call "The German"--from whom she appears to receive a customary welcome. Mutual misunderstanding and a persistent sense of alienation, however, thrum below the surface. And when conflicts arise over repairs to the house, Nat receives an offer and makes a crucial decision. In prose as taut and oppressive as the atmosphere in La Escapa, Un Amor extends Mesa's exploration of language and power, confronting readers with the limits of their own morality as tensions mount and the community's most unexpected impulses emerge.

Un Amor: A Novel

Un amour

GRASSET

Tsunami: Miradas feministas

Morales, Cristina

Freixas, Laura

Adón, Pilar

Fallarás, Cristina

Sánchez, María

Banana, Flavita

Barrios, Nuria

Portela, Edurne

Usón, Clara

Editorial Sexto Piso

A homeless woman, disabled, sick and in a situation of absolute precariousness that tries to request the minimum income to which she is entitled, according to the optimistic messages from the administration and the media. But the bureaucratic labyrinth that she must go through leads to the despair of silence.

Silencio administrativo: La pobreza en el laberinto burocrático (Nuevos Cuadernos Anagrama, 14) (Spanish Edition)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Editorial Anagrama

Product Description La autora de este libro coge mal el lápiz. Lo ha cogido mal desde niña, cuando algunos profesores se empeñaban en corregirla porque «hay que escribir como Dios manda», e, incapaz de aprender, ha seguido cogiéndolo mal hasta el día de hoy, con todas las consecuencias. Porque... ¿puede acaso salir buena letra de un lápiz torcido? Ésta es una de las cuestiones que planean sobre este conjunto de cuentos: la de la escritura indócil, libre y acelerada, la escritura que araña y rasga la memoria, que destroza los recuerdos y hace de ellos otra cosa.Las historias que aparecen en este volumen abordan temas como la culpa y la redención, la falta de libertad y esos «pequeños instantes, epifanías, revelaciones, imágenes que se abren, palabras que se desdoblan», cuando «algo se quiebra, y todo cambia». Niños que se resisten a obedecer y que viven con asombro y soledad el difícil proceso de crecer; chicas rebeldes cuya rebeldía es subterránea, rabiosa y poco aprovechable; seres atormentados –o no– por los remordimientos y las dudas; picabueyes y nutrias que representan agresión o consuelo; el desconcierto de vidas en apariencia normales que a veces encierran crímenes y otras únicamente el deseo de cometerlos. Review «Esta colección certifica la fecundidad de una imaginación muy porosa a los aspectos sórdidos, aunque velados, de una cotidianidad hostil» (Francisco Solano, El País).«Un libro excelente y alegato contra la pedagogía que nos quiere hacer a todos iguales» (Elena Sierra, El Correo Español). Book Description La autora de este libro coge mal el lápiz. Lo ha cogido mal desde niña, cuando algunos profesores se empeñaban en corregirla porque «hay que escribir como Dios manda», e, incapaz de aprender, ha seguido cogiéndolo mal hasta el día de hoy, con todas las consecuencias. Porque... ¿puede acaso salir buena letra de un lápiz torcido? Ésta es una de las cuestiones que planean sobre este conjunto de cuentos: la de la escritura indócil, libre y acelerada, la escritura que araña y rasga la memoria, que destroza los recuerdos y hace de ellos otra cosa.Las historias que aparecen en este volumen abordan temas como la culpa y la redención, la falta de libertad y esos «pequeños instantes, epifanías, revelaciones, imágenes que se abren, palabras que se desdoblan», cuando «algo se quiebra, y todo cambia». Niños que se resisten a obedecer y que viven con asombro y soledad el difícil proceso de crecer; chicas rebeldes cuya rebeldía es subterránea, rabiosa y poco aprovechable; seres atormentados –o no– por los remordimientos y las dudas; picabueyes y nutrias que representan agresión o consuelo; el desconcierto de vidas en apariencia normales que a veces encierran crímenes y otras únicamente el deseo de cometerlos. About the Author Sara Mesa (Madrid, 1976) desde niña reside en Sevilla. En Anagrama se han publicado desde 2012 las novelas Cuatro por cuatro (finalista del Premio Herralde de Novela): «Una escritura desnuda y fría, repleta de imágenes poderosas que desasosiegan en la misma medida que magnetizan» (Marta Sanz, El Confidencial); Cicatriz (Premio El Ojo Crítico de Narrativa): «Una verdadera revelación» (J. M. Guelbenzu, El País); «Sara Mesa levanta una literatura de alto voltaje trabajada con precisión de orfebre» (Rafael Chirbes); la recuperada Un incendio invisible: «Demuestra ser una creadora muy exigente. Una novela que funciona como los buenos cuentos pues contiene mucho más de lo que dice» (J. M. Pozuelo Yvancos, ABC); Cara de pan: «Una pequeña obra maestra de la narrativa» (J. Ernesto Ayala-Dip, Qué Leer); y Un amor: «Sus aristas se presentan bajo una prosa de limpieza desconcertante, escueta, ágil: se lee con la velocidad que asociamos al disfrute, pero al cerrarlo nos encontramos desamparados. Una novela magnífica» (Nadal Suau, El Cultural); el muy celebrado volumen de relatos Mala letra: «Cuatro por cuatro, Cicatriz y Mala letra de Sara Mesa protagonizan desde hace meses la esc

Mala letra (Compactos) (Spanish Edition)

Cuatro por cuatro

Contemporary

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