Clarissa's Blog

This is a new series I’m starting where I want to record every single book that I read because I think that would be fun. These will not be full-scale reviews but just notes I take. 

Author: Miguel Ángel Hernández

Title: Intento de escapada

Year of publication: 2013

My rating: 10 out of 10

I did not expect anything out of this novel from a young author (he’s a year younger than me) with an unfortunately unmemorable name. I like to keep track of new authors publishing in Spain, so I picked it up. And boy, was I in for a surprise, or what? The novel turned out to be massively good. I haven’t read anything so professionally executed and enjoyable from a new writer in a very long time.

Hernández is an Art History professor, and this is his first novel. I highly recommend it to undergrads who want to improve their Spanish or need a text to work on for their senior research project. I also recommend it to Spanish profs who want something that can be used in class. There is an oral sex scene, which is the only thing that might be problematic for a classroom setting but it is such a good novel that we shouldn’t let that prevent us from bringing it to the students.

I can’t tell you “what the novel is about” because it’s too good for that. But don’t worry, there is nothing scarily postmodernist in the writing style. To me, the novel was precious because the protagonist’s experiences mirrored my own youthful enchantment with my field of knowledge and my consequent encounter with a harsh reality of what things were really like.

The book is being translated into English and will be published as Escape Attempt by Hispabooks.