Only Smoke

When Carlos turns 18, his mother tells him that his estranged father, who left their home long ago, has recently been killed in a motorbike accident. Carlos inherits his father’s book-filled apartment. Beside the bed is a well-worn copy of Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Young Carlos picks it up and starts reading at random, finding that he can inhabit the stories he reads as a “ghost,” comingling with the characters of the fairy tales. These literary explorations lead him to discoveries about himself, his father, and to a loving relationship with his new neighbor Amelia. Millás (From the Shadows), who has won the Premio Nadal (the most prestigious and oldest Spanish literary prize), the Premio Planeta, and the Premio Nacional de Narrativa, uses his trademark “articuento” writing style to great effect, taking an everyday tale and turning it into a fantasy to create a new understanding of reality. It’s translated, like many of his other works, by the award-winning Hahn and Bunstead.