Short stories
Una cierta nostalgia
Not translated into English
María Eugenia Ramos · 2000
Synopsis
Eleven stories, real or imaginary, peopled by beings bruised by reality who look for a way out of their loneliness. In "Domingo por la noche", two women who had been handing out leaflets fall into the hands of soldiers after the curfew; in "La otra", Carmen loses herself in her reflection; elsewhere, dreams offer a refuge that turns into nightmare, and the border between the real and the fantastic blurs.
Context
The collection appeared in 2000 from Ediciones Guardabarranco; it was reissued in 2010 by Editorial Iberoamericana, then in 2016 by Guaymuras, in an edition whose cover and layout the author designed. Little noticed on publication, it is for her the book that opened the most doors, rediscovered by readers abroad and read today by young people on their teachers' advice. Another of her stories, "La cinta roja", has been translated into Portuguese and Italian; the collection has been translated into neither French nor English.
Who it is for
To discover a Honduran storyteller who writes, in clear prose, of dark subjects: loneliness, madness, violent death.
Prizes and reception
In the review Carátula, in 2017, Dennis Arita praises a limpid, clean style in the service of a disquieting world.