The Light of the Fireflies

From bestselling Spanish author Paul Pen comes a haunting and hopeful tale of discovering light in even the darkest of places.

For his whole life, the boy has lived underground, in a basement with his parents, grandmother, sister, and brother. Before he was born, his family was disfigured by a fire. His sister wears a white mask to cover her burns.

He spends his hours with his cactus, reading his book on insects, or touching the one ray of sunlight that filters in through a crack in the ceiling. Ever since his sister had a baby, everyone’s been acting very strangely. The boy begins to wonder why they never say who the father is, about what happened before his own birth, about why they’re shut away.

A few days ago, some fireflies arrived in the basement. His grandma said, There’s no creature more amazing than one that can make its own light. That light makes the boy want to escape, to know the outside world. Problem is, all the doors are locked. And he doesn’t know how to get out…

Paul Pen is an author, journalist, and scriptwriter. In 2014, he won the Gonzoo Prize for author of the year from Spanish newspaper 20 minutos, awarded by popular vote. His first novel, The Warning, also earned him the title of Fnac New Talent in 2011 and has been translated into German and Italian. Pen’s short stories include a digital-format collection of suspenseful tales titled Thirteen Stories. The Light of the Fireflies is his second novel and is available in English for the first time.

About the Translator

Simon Bruni is a translator of fiction and nonfiction from Spanish, a language he acquired through “total immersion” living in Alicante, Valencia, and Santander. He studied Spanish and linguistics at Queen Mary University of London and literary translation at the University of Exeter. His literary translations include nov¬els, short stories, and video games, while his nonfiction portfolio spans fields as diverse as journalism, social geography, early modern witch¬craft, food security, and military history.

He has won two third-place prizes in the John Dryden Translation Competition: in 2015 for his translation of Paul Pen’s harrowing short story “The Porcelain Boy,” and in 2011 for Francisco Pérez Gandul’s slang-driven novel Cell 211. His translation of Paul Pen’s novel The Light of the Fireflies has sold more than a hundred thousand copies worldwide.

Simon serves on the executive committee of the Society of Authors’ Translators Association (TA) and is a member of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA). For more information, please visit www.simonbruni.com.