El juego sigue sin mí
(The Game Goes On Without Me) Siruela, 2015
Ismael looks back on a time when he was thirteen years old and his grades were failing. His parents turned to Rai, a boy five years his senior and very popular at high-school, to tutor him. After an unsuccessful first session, Rai and Ismael make a pact: if the boy studies in his own time, his tutor will introduce him to books, movies, music, life, etc. And also tell him about Samuel, a young man who wrote to his ex-girlfriend threatening to take his own life if she stood him up.
From this intriguing start, Martin Casariego has written a coming-of-age novel, the story of the transition from teenager to adulthood, of family and the new ways the young now forge relationships, of the dangers posed by this decisive stage of life, of the burden of existence and of how to lighten the load. A story shrouded in shadows, doubt and secrets, in which the white whale our narrator is fleeing from will rear its head years later, changing everything and forcing him to reassess the past.
“An enthralling novel about grief, secrets, thwarted love, and the beautiful, blistering wounds that life can inflict.” Rosa Montero
“An outstanding contemporary take on a time-honoured literary genre: the coming-of-age novel.” Ignacio Martínez de Pisón
«An exemplary novel, of deceptive simplicity, that grabs the reader’s attention from page one.» Marcos Giralt Torrente
«An existential thriller, a fast-paced novel with sensational dialog, written with the delicate touch of one of the finest writers of his generation.» Mercedes Monmany
«The novel offers up a wealth of speculative musings (both transcendental and artistic) that never get in the way of the human interest (…) while again demonstrating his penchant for intimate fables. An entertaining and moving coming-of-age novel.» Santos Sanz Villanueva, El Cultural
«A superb coming-of-age novel. In my opinion, one of the finest winners of the Café de Gijón Prize in recent editions.» M. Rodríguez Rivero, El País
«An intimate, free-flowing fable that pays homage to the joys of storytelling. (…) A moving coming-of-age novel.» Santos Sanz Villanueva, El Mundo
«Casariego has written great YA novels and has a keen insight into the turbulent years leading up to adulthood, and all their contradictions (...) The novel’s strength lies in the unexpected final twist that forces the protagonist to reassess all his live so far and readers to make sense of what they have read.» Sagrario Fernández Prieto, La Razón
«Triumphantly claims its place in the coming-of-age genre. The author skilfully paces events, portraying his characters with pinpoint precision. A book whose reader-friendliness is matched by the thousand-and-one nuances contained within.» Ángela Pérez, El Imparcial
«Delightfully empathetic, in the purest tradition of Proust and his Marcel, Joyce and his young artist, Goethe… Natural, not scolding, pared-down prose and dialog that has the ring of the harsh turth.» Ángeles López, Librújula
«Intelligent, melancholic, a reminder that life flickers out, leaving only memory behind. Excellent.» Fernando R. Lafuente, ABC
