Above the Rain: A Novel
May 2021 · Other Press, LLC
Ebook
480
Pages
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About this ebook
The past, present, and future collide on a breathtaking journey from 1950s Morocco to modern-day Spain and Sweden—equal parts literary novel, historical fiction, and crime story
“In Del Árbol’s noir-inflected masterpiece, the past is always present, the political is always personal, and love, however fleeting, is the only redeeming grace. I loved every moment of it.” —Halley Sutton, author of The Lady Upstairs
Miguel and Helena meet at a nursing home in Tarifa, a coastal town at the southernmost tip of Spain. At an age when they believe their life is behind them and distanced from their children, they feel they are no longer needed. The sudden suicide of one of the other residents opens their eyes. They don’t want to spend their last days longing for supposedly better times, so together they decide to undertake the journey of their lives and confront the darkness in their pasts.
Meanwhile, in the distant Swedish city of Malmö, the young Yasmina, a child of Moroccan immigrants who dreams of being a singer, lives trapped between her authoritarian grandfather and her contemptuous mother, who is ashamed of Yasmina because she works for a Swede with a murky reputation. And she’s having a secret affair with the Deputy Commissioner of the Swedish police, an older, influential man.
As Yasmina is drawn deeper into Malmö’s criminal underworld and Miguel and Helena approach the end of their feverish road trip, Víctor del Árbol masterfully reconstructs the history of violence that links their seemingly disparate lives.
“In Del Árbol’s noir-inflected masterpiece, the past is always present, the political is always personal, and love, however fleeting, is the only redeeming grace. I loved every moment of it.” —Halley Sutton, author of The Lady Upstairs
Miguel and Helena meet at a nursing home in Tarifa, a coastal town at the southernmost tip of Spain. At an age when they believe their life is behind them and distanced from their children, they feel they are no longer needed. The sudden suicide of one of the other residents opens their eyes. They don’t want to spend their last days longing for supposedly better times, so together they decide to undertake the journey of their lives and confront the darkness in their pasts.
Meanwhile, in the distant Swedish city of Malmö, the young Yasmina, a child of Moroccan immigrants who dreams of being a singer, lives trapped between her authoritarian grandfather and her contemptuous mother, who is ashamed of Yasmina because she works for a Swede with a murky reputation. And she’s having a secret affair with the Deputy Commissioner of the Swedish police, an older, influential man.
As Yasmina is drawn deeper into Malmö’s criminal underworld and Miguel and Helena approach the end of their feverish road trip, Víctor del Árbol masterfully reconstructs the history of violence that links their seemingly disparate lives.
About the author
Víctor del Árbol was born in Barcelona in 1968 and was an officer of the Catalan police force from 1992 to 2012. As the recipient of the Nadal Prize, the Tiflos Prize, and as the first Spanish author to win the Prix du Polar Européen, he has distinguished himself as a prominent voice in Spanish literature. Other Press has published his novels Breathing Through the Wound and A Million Drops, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by the Washington Post.
Lisa Dillman has translated a number of Spanish and Latin American writers. Some of her recent translations include Such Small Hands and A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba; Signs Preceding the End of the World and A Silent Fury by Yuri Herrera; and A Million Drops and Breathing Through the Wound by Víctor del Árbol. She teaches in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Lisa Dillman has translated a number of Spanish and Latin American writers. Some of her recent translations include Such Small Hands and A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba; Signs Preceding the End of the World and A Silent Fury by Yuri Herrera; and A Million Drops and Breathing Through the Wound by Víctor del Árbol. She teaches in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
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