Miss Mars

BOOK REVIEW

MISS MARTE

Author: Manuel Jabois From the reader report by: Carsten Regling

In his novel Miss Marte, Galician author Manuel Jabois tells about the disappearance without a trace of a three-years-old girl and the subsequent suicide of her mother at a small fishing village and about the case being reconstructed by a journalist twenty five years later. This journalist is making a documentary film about the events in those days, and for this purpose she interviews several inhabitants of the village as well as friends of the disappeared child’s mother. This way, by and by light is shed on the enigmatic, gloomy story, until finally the case is solved by a surprising turn. […]

Manuel Jabois’s book is a kind of literary report (covering an invented story), a mixture of literature and fictitious chronicle, which is also reflected by his style and language. Apart from factual descriptions, there are literary passages presented in an evocative and dense language. Doing so, frequently the author makes use of the stylistic means of the omission, which way the reader only by and by and in a thrilling way comes to understand the connections between what happened in the years 1993/94 and the present, which is the time of the narrator.

Miss Marte is a convincing, brightly written and exciting novel (sometimes the piecemeal solution of the ‘case’ and the almost investigative research, including the ‘questioning of witnesses’, resemble a crime novel) circling around the topics of memory and identity. Topically and stylistically, Jabois succeeds with creating quite a special atmosphere (to which there also contributes the setting, the rough Galician coast) which with every page makes the reader diving more deeply into the enigmatic story.

PUBLISHED IN NEW SPANISH BOOKS DE

PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE

Title MISS MARS MISS MARTE

Author Manuel Jabois Genre Literature Pages 208

ISBN 978-84-20454-32-0 Year of publication 2021

Number of editions

Language Spanish Spanish retail price 17.90 €

Author’s biography: Manuel Jabois was born in Sanxenxo, Pontevedra, in 1978 and began his career in journalism with the newspaper Diario de Pontevedra. He moved on to El Mundo, and since 2015 he has worked for El País, writing reports, features and columns. He also has a daily feature on the programme Hora 25 with the radio station Cadena SER. He has also published the collection of articles Go to Madrid (2011), a brief memoir Wild Group (2012) and Manu (2013), and a long work on 9/11 called See You in This Life or the Next (2016). Malaherba (Alfaguara, 2019) sold more than 32,000 copies, and established him as one of his generation’s most popular authors in Spanish.

Synopsis: “People think that a full life is when many things happen to you, but I believe that living a full life is when you know what you’re missing”, 1993. Mai, a young girl with a two-year-old daughter, arrives at a seaside town and turns it upside-down. She makes friends straight away, she meets Santi and it’s love at first sight, and one year later their wedding ends in tragedy, when her daughter mysteriously disappears on the night of the celebrations. 2019, journalist Berta Soneira is making a documentary about the events of 25 years ago, and she interviews the people who remember them, writing the story of a day that changed everybody’s lives. “Manuel Jabois creates a literary world that gives the footnotes of life a richness and complexity.” Santos Sanz Villanueva, El Cultural

Publisher who has published: Alfaguara

Publisher: Penguin Random House Penguin Random House in the Spanish-language department of international publishers Penguin Random House, which publishes books for all ages and in all formats – paper, digital or audio – in Spain, Portugal, Latin America and the United States.

Publishing rights available from: Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial - CIF A08116147 Travessera de Gràcia 47-49, Barcelona, Barcelona www.penguinrandomhousegrupoeditorial.com www.megustaleer.com/libros/invisible/MES-110754 Contact: Conxita Estruga [conxita.estruga@penguinrandomhouse.com] Phone: (+34) 689 604 165

Prizes and reviews: “Jabois has written a beautiful book that is blessed with charm, which is so difficult to create and sustain.” Miqui Otero, El Periódico.

Comments: “[Jabois] does with words what Cartier-Bresson does with photography, he traps you immediately.” Eva Pérez Sorribes, Heraldo de Aragón