LETRAS

In her second story collection, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned. In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,” a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,” a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,” Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school. Hilarious, thought-provoking, and full of tenderness for her characters, Sittenfeld’s stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.

A brutal murder, a missing masterpiece, a mystery only Gabriel Allon can solve . . . Art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon has slipped quietly into London to attend a reception at the Courtauld Gallery celebrating the return of a stolen self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh. But when an old friend from the Devon and Cornwall Police seeks his help with a baffling murder investigation, he finds himself pursuing a powerful and dangerous new adversary. The victim is Charlotte Blake, a celebrated professor of art history from Oxford who spends her weekends in the same seaside village where Gabriel once lived under an assumed identity. Her murder appears to be the work of a diabolical serial killer who has been terrorizing the Cornish countryside. But there are a number of telltale inconsistencies, including a missing mobile phone. And then there is the mysterious three-letter cypher she left behind on a notepad in her study.

The world outside has grown toxic, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. The remnants of humanity live underground in a single silo. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they want: They are allowed to go outside. After the previous sheriff leaves the silo in a terrifying ritual, Juliette, a mechanic from the down deep, is suddenly and inexplicably promoted to the head of law enforcement. With newfound power and with little regard for the customs she is supposed to abide, Juliette uncovers hints of a sinister conspiracy. Tugging this thread may uncover the truth . . . or it could kill every last human alive.

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova. Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.

Hay cosas por las que merece la pena esperar. Avery Morgansten necesita huir del recuerdo de una noche fatídica, e irse a la universidad a miles de kilómetros de su casa parece ser el único modo de hacerlo. Solo tiene que centrarse en sus clases, en hacer amigos y, sobre todo, en no llamar la atención. Hay cosas que merece la pena experimentar. Cameron Hamilton es un metro noventa de irresistible atractivo completado por un par de imponentes ojos azules. Avery sabe que debería mantener las distancias, pero ignorar la tensión entre ellos, que saca un lado de ella que ni siquiera sabía que existía, es imposible. Hay cosas que no deberían mantenerse en secreto. Sin embargo, cuando Avery empieza a recibir correos electrónicos llenos de amenazas, tendrá que enfrentarse al pasado que tanto le ha costado dejar atrás. Pero, cuando la verdad salga a la luz..., ¿podrá seguir contando con Cam? Y hay cosas por las que merece la pena luchar.

Los primeros años del siglo XX fueron un período especialmente fructífero para la creatividad humana. Europa era un hervidero de nuevas ideas y tendencias que surgían por doquier. Política, ciencia, música, pintura, arquitectura, literatura: en todos los campos se ponían en entredicho los valores tradicionales, y el sentimiento general era de cambio y revolución, un tiempo en el que todo parecía posible. En este original relato, el historiador y periodista Florian Illies nos transporta cien años atrás para describirnos qué pensaban y cómo actuaban algunos de los protagonistas de la escena europea a lo largo de 1913. Proust busca el tiempo perdido, Freud desnuda almas en su diván, Stravinski celebra la primavera, Kafka, Joyce y Musil toman el mismo día un café en Trieste... Y en el parque del castillo de Schonbrunn, Hitler y Stalin se pasean en lo que será su único encuentro. Así pues, el triunfo y la melancolía se funden, todo es pulsión creativa, pero, a su vez, el ser humano parece haber perdido la inocencia y, de alguna manera, se intuye el abrupto declive que se avecina. Después de 1913, claro está, Europa se precipita en el abismo. Con un estilo elegante y un fino sentido del humor, Florian Illies ha reunido un fascinante catálogo de anécdotas, apuntes, citas y extractos de diarios y otros textos de la época para recrear con extraordinaria naturalidad la magia y la emoción de un mo­mento clave de la cultura europea, con múltiples ecos en nuestro comprometido presente. Contra todo pronóstico para un libro de esta naturaleza, 1913. Un año hace cien años ha conquistado el número uno de las listas de libros más vendidos en Alemania, donde se mantiene hasta la redacción de estas líneas.