Talking to Ourselves
ABOUT
THE BOOK
One trip. Two love stories. Three voices.
Lito is ten years old and is almost sure he can change the weather when he concentrates very hard. His father, Mario, anxious to create a memory that will last for his son’s lifetime, takes him on a road trip in a truck called Pedro. But Lito doesn’t know that this might be their last trip: Mario is gravely ill. Together, father and son embark on a journey which takes them through strange geographies that seem to meld the different parts of the Spanish-speaking world. In the meantime, Lito’s mother, Elena, restlessly seeks support in books, and soon undertakes an adventure of her own that will challenge her moral limits. Each narrative–of father, son, and mother–embodies one of the different ways that we talk to ourselves: through speech, through thought, and through writing. While neither of them dares to tell the complete truth to the other two, their individual voices nonetheless form a poignant conversation.
Sooner or later, we all face loss. Andrés Neuman movingly narrates the ways the lives of those who survive loss are transformed. Talking to Ourselves presents a tender yet unsentimental portrait of the workings of love and family.
Librarian’s Comments
The core theme of this story highlights the loneliness of the characters in their inability to deal with real dialogue. And the author’s success is to accomplish this task with remarkable subtle writing of literary quality. His previous novel, Traveller of the Century, was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Nick
Caistor
Nick Caistor is a translator, journalist, and author of non-fiction books. He has translated some forty books from Spanish and Portuguese, including those by Paulo Coelho, Eduardo Mendoza, Juan Marsé, and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, and has twice been awarded the Valle-Inclán prize for Spanish translation. He has presented and produced many programs on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service and is a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian.
Nick Caistor is a translator, journalist, and author of non-fiction books. He has translated some forty books from Spanish and Portuguese, including those by Paulo Coelho, Eduardo Mendoza, Juan Marsé, and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, and has twice been awarded the Valle-Inclán prize for Spanish translation. He has presented and produced many programs on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service and is a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Lorenza
Garcia
Lorenza Garcia was born and brought up in England. She spent her early twenties living and working in Iceland and Spain. In 1998 she graduated from Goldsmiths with a first-class honors degree in Spanish and Latin American studies. She moved to France in 2001, where she lived for seven years. Since 2006 she has translated and co-translated more than thirty novels and works of nonfiction from the French, the Spanish, and the Icelandic.
Lorenza Garcia was born and brought up in England. She spent her early twenties living and working in Iceland and Spain. In 1998 she graduated from Goldsmiths with a first-class honors degree in Spanish and Latin American studies. She moved to France in 2001, where she lived for seven years. Since 2006 she has translated and co-translated more than thirty novels and works of nonfiction from the French, the Spanish, and the Icelandic.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
The core theme of this story highlights the loneliness of the characters in their inability to deal with real dialogue. And the author’s success is to accomplish this task with remarkable subtle writing of literary quality. His previous novel, Traveller of the Century, was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.