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A poignant tale of a recently widowed new mother and her effort to rediscover herself through a writing retreat.
About the author
Muriel Villanueva (Valencia, 1976) is a writer of novels, short stories, poetry and children's and youth literature. She has a degree in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature from the University of Barcelona, as well as a diploma in Music Education from the University of Valencia. In addition to writing, she also teaches courses in writing and is a music teacher. Her latest publications have been La gatera, Motril 86, Duna, diario d'un estiu, and the trilogy L'Esfera.She has received several awards, including the JM Casero Award, the Valencian Writers' Critics Award, and The Talúries Poetry Award.
Megan Berkobien holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the same university, where she founded the school's undergraduate translation journal, Canon Translation Review. She has worked as an assistant editor for the online magazine Asymptote as well as an editorial intern for Words Without Borders and Open Letter Books. Her translations have been published in Words Without Borders, B O D Y, and Palabras Errantes, Asymptote, and Catch & Release. She was chosen as an ALTA Fellow for the 2014 Annual Conference.
María Cristina Hall is a Mexican-American poet, translator, and immigration activist. She has a bachelor's in creative writing and political science from Columbia University and a master's in translation studies from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. A Catalan and Spanish translator, she currently works at Institut Ramon Llull's office in New York City. Her translations can be found in Words Without Borders, Loch Raven Review, and Alchemy. Her poetry can be found in Sea Foam Mag, Leveler, The Fem, Reservoir, Apogee, and Brokn English.
Summary
The narrator of this novel, a writer, arrives by train at Casetes Beach with her month-old daughter on her back. She prepares to spend a few weeks in one of the cottages by the sand. Her husband has recently passed away and she needs to open the parenthesis of her life: to forget something, and to discover something else. But the appearance of an overly assertive starfish precedes a series of disturbing events, and as the narrator begins to lose a hold on reality, we are immersed in the uncertain territory of allegory.
With a lively and direct style and overwhelming poetic force, Muriel Villanueva guides us through the daily motions of life, and at the same time a fantastic journey of a woman in search of her own maturity.
Foreword
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