Strange. Surreal. Shocking. Beautiful.
Strange. Surreal. Shocking. Beautiful.
On the first day of the second thaw after her mother’s death, Lamia’s father disappeared. The canoe, too. The place where it had been stored all winter—the shed behind the cabin—was empty. She and her brother went out looking for him until they reached the snowline on the mountain. They continued along the river below, seeking signs of his passage, exploring the paths and inquiring at neighboring cabins, but no one had seen him.
Chasing foreign stories is a thrilling experience. There are no guidebooks that teach you how to do it, no tutorials, no specific courses that can prepare you for the task. It is a mix of detective work, archaeological hunts, literary scouting, and sometimes, translating willpower that forces you to dig in the repositories of magazines, publishing websites, and authors’ pages.
The actual literary landscape in Spain is quite gloomy if compared with equivalent European markets. The situation is a mixture of “highs” and “lows”: high taxes on books, and roaring unemployment rate; low percentage of readers among the general public, minimal credibility of the successive administrations, due to mismanagement and numerous scandals. The general political climate is in turmoil, even though it seems there are timid signs of recuperation in the economic front.
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