BOOK REVIEW THE DARK YEARS Author: Eva Gallud From the reader report by: André Gabastou Los Años oscuros describes a voyage into darkness from absolute luminosity. A young girl searches for light in Madrid in order to resuscitate her father who, for her entire lifetime, has tried to be a dead man. This tale highlights the loneliness that is so prevalent in our time and strongly criticises the solitude created by social constraints, which leaves us even more alone. Each page of this tale, which takes place in a Madrid hospital where a father lies dying from cancer, combines emotional accuracy and free will. A story of abandon and prodigious fathers, who fall like dead weights into the inexperienced arms of their children, who in turn evoke them with exquisite restraint, in stories that get straight to the point. Stories of secrets, strangeness (the relationship between the narrator and a mysterious French woman named Solange) and mirrors, allowing the protagonist to observe life as if memory were the master of the universe. The book brings to mind The Stranger by Camus, because of the harmony between the subject matter and the language used, but not only that. The sparse nature of the tale allows the language to carve out its meaning and demonstrate its pertinence. Nothing seems artificial, the tone is always perfect. An important and captivating first novel on absurdity and emotional distress.
PUBLISHED IN NEW SPANISH BOOKS FR
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