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3.0 

This World Does Not Belong to Us

By Natalia García Freire & Victor Meadowcroft
This World Does Not Belong to Us by Natalia García Freire & Victor Meadowcroft digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

Lucas was just a child when his father sold him to another farmer as a laborer. Years later, Lucas returns, full of resentment and burning for revenge.

After years away, Lucas returns uninvited to the home he was expelled from as a child. The garden has been conquered by weeds, which blanket his mother’s beloved flowerbeds and his father’s grave alike. A lot has changed since Eloy and Felisberto were invited into the family home to work for Lucas’s father, long ago. The two hulking strangers have brought the land and everyone on it under their control—and removed nuisances like Lucas. Now everything rots. Lucas, a hardened young man, turns to a world that thrives in dirt and darkness: the world of insects. In raw, lyrical prose, García Freire portrays a world brought low by human greed, while hinting at glimmers of hope in the unlikeliest places.

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36 Reviews

3.0
Surprised Face with Open Mouth““donde hay ladrillos, miro entre los huecos, espío las grietas; ahí es donde están mis arañas, mis trompudos gorgojos, mis hábiles ciempiés. Sé que están todos en esta casa, nuestra casa, costra de tierra seca, con su oscuridad, que es un caldo de cultivo, les ha dado posada para que esperaran mi regreso. Ellos son minúsculos, hermosos y leales.” 👀UY. Considero esto ‘weird fiction’, me gusta el weird fiction😂”
“3.75⭐️”
Surprised Face with Open Mouth“I’m not sure I loved this book, in the sense that I love say, the Harry Potter books. This is a unique book written as in monologue format with Lucas speaking as if addressing his father. The story itself is tragic with Lucas’s family completely being derailed when the father allows two men to enter their lives and home. There’s a lot of nuance in the storytelling and it’s really interesting how the author managed to capture entire themes in each character.”
Thumbs Up“The story revolves around Lucas Torrente de Valses and what does he think when he returns home after being sold into slavery when he was a little boy, when he could finally escape the master he served. It is told in flashbacks through Lucas’ point of view. With his both parents dead, the house he returns to is old and decrepit. The reader perceives through this narrative all the pain and hurt the protagonist feels. This book is dark and disconcerting, the narrative is lyrical. I recommend it if you like dark books and translated fiction.”

About Natalia García Freire

Natalia García Freire was born in Cuenca, Ecuador, in 1991. She teaches Creative Writing at Azuay University and has also worked as a primary school teacher. García Freire’s journalistic work has appeared in outlets such as BBC Mundo and Univisión, and her short story “Noche de fiesta” was published in the Spanish literary journal La gran belleza. This World Does Not Belong to Us is García Freire’s debut novel. It was nominated for the Tigre Juan literary award and selected by the New York Times as one of the best Spanish-language books of 2019. It has been translated into Italian, French, and Turkish.

Victor Meadowcroft grew up at the foot of the Sintra Mountains in Portugal and translates from Portuguese and Spanish. His translations of works by María Fernanda Ampuero, Itamar Vieira Junior, and Murilo Rubião have appeared in the literary journals Latin American Literature Today and Mānoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing. On his blog, Onomatomania, he publishes interviews with authors, publishers, and translators. His cotranslation with Anne McLean of Stranger to the Moon by prizewinning Colombian author Evelio Rosero will be published in the summer of 2021.

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