Bad Handwriting

Mesa, Sara

ISBN 10: 1948830558 / ISBN 13: 9781948830553

Published by Open Letter, Rochester, NY, 2022

8vo, 168 pp., Translated from the Spanish by Katie Whittemore. Seller Inventory # 108649

Synopsis:

From the author of the highly acclaimed Four by Four and Among the Hedges comes a collection of unsettling, captivating stories.

The eleven stories in this collection approach themes of childhood and adolescence, guilt and redemption, power and freedom. There are children who resist authority and experience the process of growing up with shock, and loneliness; alienated young girls whose rebellion lies under the surface―subterranean, furious and impotent; people who are tormented―or not―by regret and doubt, addicted to feelings of culpability; men who take advantage of women and adults who exercise power over children with a disturbing degree of control; kids abandoned by their parents; the suicide of the elderly and the young; lives that hide crimes―both real and imagined. Eschewing cosmopolitanism in favor of the micro-world of her characters, Mesa depicts a reality that is messy and disturbing, on even the smallest scale of an individual life, a single family.

About the Authors: Sara Mesa is the author of eight works of fiction, including Scar (winner of the Ojo Critico Prize), Four by Four (a finalist for the Herralde Prize), An Invisible Fire (winner of the Premio Málaga de Novela), Among the Hedges, and Un amor, which was named by several Spanish newspapers as the book of the year for 2020. Her works have been translated into more than ten different languages, and she has been widely praised for her concise, sharp writing style.

Katie Whittemore translates from the Spanish. Full-length translations include works by Sara Mesa, Javier Serena, Aroa Moreno Durán, Lara Moreno, Nuria Labari, and Katixa Agirre. Forthcoming translations include novels by Jon Bilbao, Juan Gómez Bárcena, Almudena Sánchez, Aliocha Coll, and Pilar Adón. She received an NEA Translation Fellowship in 2022 to translate Moreno's In Case We Lose Power.

Frances Riddle is a literary translator, specializing in the translation of contemporary Latin American literature into English. She has a BA in Spanish literature and an MA in translation studies from the University of Buenos Aires. To date, she has translated half a dozen novels for leading translation houses such as New Directions Publishing, Dalkey Archive Press and Charco Press. She lives in Buenos Aires.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Bad Handwriting
Publisher: Open Letter, Rochester, NY
Publication Date: 2022
Binding: softcover
Condition: Fine copy
Edition: 1st.