Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this disappointing metafictional fable from Millas (Let No One Sleep), a son inherits more than he bargained for from his absent father. After Carlos's father dies in a motorcycle accident, he's surprised to be given the keys to his dad's book-filled Madrid apartment. There, he finds a disturbing autobiographical story his father had written just before his death, as well as an edition of Grimms' Fairy Tales. While reading the collection, Carlos discovers he's somehow entered the stories, and he watches them unfold before he realizes that he can alter the action. When not immersed in the fairy tales, he pursues a career in risk management and begins a relationship with his neighbor, a middle-aged woman who may have been his father's lover. The narrative harps somewhat heavy-handedly on the blurred boundaries between reality and fiction: "In stories... the extraordinary and the ordinary merge like the materials of an alloy in which it then becomes impossible to separate the original constituent parts." Millas creates a sense of genuine eeriness, but the conceit doesn't feel particularly fresh. This lacks the magic of the author's previous work. (May)
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Review by Library Journal Review
When Carlos turns 18, his mother tells him that his estranged father, who left their home long ago, has recently been killed in a motorbike accident. Carlos inherits his father's book-filled apartment. Beside the bed is a well-worn copy of Grimms' Fairy Tales. Young Carlos picks it up and starts reading at random, finding that he can inhabit the stories he reads as a "ghost," comingling with the characters of the fairy tales. These literary explorations lead him to discoveries about himself, his father, and to a loving relationship with his new neighbor Amelia. Millás (From the Shadows), who has won the Premio Nadal (the most prestigious and oldest Spanish literary prize), the Premio Planeta, and the Premio Nacional de Narrativa, uses his trademark "articuento" writing style to great effect, taking an everyday tale and turning it into a fantasy to create a new understanding of reality. It's translated, like many of his other works, by the award-winning Hahn and Bunstead. VERDICT In this unpredictable, introspective, but lighthearted slim novel, Millás merges reality and fantasy. This wonder of a book can be experienced in one or two sittings and encourages a second reading.--Lisa Rohrbaugh
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