Severina

A new translation of the Guatemalan author whom Roberto Bolao called the most rigorous writer of my generation, the most transparent . . . the most luminous of all Severina is impeccably written. . . . Read this great novel.Luis Alonso Girgado, El Ideal Gallego Right from the start I picked her for a thief, although that day she didnt take anything. . . . I knew shed be back, the narrator/bookseller of Severina recalls in this novels opening pages. Imagine a dark-haired book thief as alluring as she is dangerous. Imagine the mesmerized bookseller secretly tracking the volumes she steals, hoping for insight into her character, her motives, her love life. In Rodrigo Rey Rosas hands, this tale of obsessive love is told with breathless precision. The bookstore owner is soon entangled in Severinas mystery: seductive and peripatetic, of uncertain nationality, she steals books to actually read them and to share with her purported grandfather, Seor Blanco. In this unsettling exploration of the alienating and simultaneously liberating power of love, the booksellers monotonous existence is rocked by the enigmatic Severina. As in a dream, the disoriented man finds that the thin border between rational and irrational is no longer reliable. Severina confirms Rey Rosas privileged place in contemporary world literature.