2017-07-04
A study in loneliness, attention, and consequences: Sonia meets an admirer online and eventually can't escape his control.Spanish novelist Mesa (Mala Letra, 2016, etc.) writes of Sonia, who works a purposeless data entry job and wants to feel that her life has meaning. She meets Knut in a literary forum, and the two take their relationship into the realm of long emails (mostly Knut's). Knut lavishes Sonia with letters and boxes of gifts: books, perfume, lingerie, and high-end clothing. Sonia has misgivings but doesn't back away. She "isn't truly curious about Knut. What attracts her is knowing that she's the recipient of his attention." "There's a sort of agreement established," and the terms are that Sonia will ceaselessly indulge him. As Sonia's house fills with a glut of presents, Knut wields his strongest weapon, the ability to dominate Sonia's thoughts. He tells her she should become a writer, but that suggestion is pregnant with expectation. "I sense plenty of talent in you…" he writes. "If you were more consistent—and less lazy—you'd be a great writer." Knut wants to control Sonia's input and output: what she reads and what she produces. Tension builds as each gift comes with a greater set of expectations. Sonia recognizes the nefariousness of Knut's requests and knows that his gifts are stolen, but she can't give up his admiration. Knut preys on her desire to please and be seen. She says, "He seemed so excited to send [the gifts] to me….How could I reject them? It would have been cruel." Knut's requests for vicarious pleasure increase until they drive Sonia from her comfort zone, but at a price. A taut and disturbing tale of inspiration which poses questions about the darker material we draw on for art.
Praise for Scar:
"A taut and disturbing tale of inspiration which poses questions about the darker material we draw on for art." —Kirkus Reviews
"Scar is an original story, written with a concise, direct, fast, transparent style and almost with the asepsis of a surgeon." —RTVE (Spain)
"A good, modern novel of two young people learning reciprocally about adult life . . . Sara Mesa confirms our good expectations." —El Mundo
Praise for Sara Mesa:
“With short, propulsive chapters, Sara Mesa creates an unforgettable gothic landscape, centered on the mysterious and menacing Wybrany College, that twists in ways that unsettle and thrill. In Four by Four, Mesa’s sentences are clear as glass, but when you look through you will be terrified by what you see.” —Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel
“The atmospheric unraveling of the mystery will keep you turning the page; the ending will leave you stunned—Mesa’s Four by Four is a tautly written literary thriller that juxtaposes the innocence of children with the fetish of control; a social parable that warns against the silence of oppression and isolation through its disquieting, sparse prose.” —Kelsey Westenberg, Seminary Co-op
"Very few authors evoke a visceral reaction with prose in the way that Sara Mesa does. A master of tension building, Mesa constructs lurid phantasmagoric worlds that are equal parts mysterious and unnerving. Four by Four sounds an alarm on the dangers of power, privilege, and the self-delusions told in order to hide complicity. A work of high gothic art, Four by Four solidifies Mesa as one of the strongest female voices in contemporary Spanish literature.” —Cristina Rodriguez
“Stylistically, Four by Four’s narrative structure is both dazzling and dizzying, as its perfect pacing only enhances the metastasizing dread and dis-ease. . . . Mesa exposes the thin veneer of venerability to be hiding something menacing and unforgivable—and Four by Four lays it bare for all the world to see.” —Jeremy Garber, Powell’s Books
“Sara Mesa. Don’t forget that name. The finalist for the 30th Premio Herralde de Novela. Read it. Share it. Talk about it. Open the book and begin. You won’t be able to put it down.” —Uxue, Un libro al día
“Sara Mesa has brought a new narrative voice to the scene that is in a position to bear important fruit for the genre of the Spanish novel in the twenty-first century. Already in Four by Four an author has been discovered with the capacity for artistic integration of different stylistic registers within the same novel and with a real talent for representing reality. Four by Four is an account of the sinister relationships of power corrupted by fear and latent violence that feed this social parable of Kafkian roots.” —Ángel Basanta, El Mundo
“What can I say about a story in which everything works? . . . A new author that will surprise us further in future.” —Sergio Sancor, Libros y literatura
