Como los pájaros aman el aire
(Like Birds Love the Air) Siruela, 2016
Fernando leads a solitary existence. On the run from his former life, he takes up residence in a small apartment in the neighbourhood of Lavapies. Grieving after his father’s death, Fernando roams the streets armed with a camera and a pair of glasses that belonged to the old man, seeking him out in the faces of the people he portrays. Thanks to his camera, he gets to know Irina, a young Lithuanian woman newly arrived in the capital.
From that moment on, without turning his back on the ghostly puzzle of a dead man, he will find his life spiralling out of control as he tries to crack another, yet more mysterious puzzle: that of a living, breathing woman. In the background lurks a murky world in which anything can be bought for a price, but Fernando will not give up on the light that now brightens his days.
«Underneath a simple plot, a well-organized narrative structure and a refined (bordering at times on intimate) writing style providee powerful scaffolding to a novel that reflects on the very essence of being alive. This reaffirms Casariego as one of the most important writers of contemporary Spanish literature today.» Jorge Avilés-Diz, World Literature Today
“A novel is the sustained deployment of a tension. Given the anxiety that occurs between the first and the last page, a novel is also an exercise on waiting. And in Martín Casariego’s book, this is a wait with a luminous reward.” Juan Carlos Méndez Guédez, Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos
«A virtuoso of the narrative art and an elegant practitioner of the Chekhovian principle whereby the full meaning of every detail is unveiled at a later point (…) A moving novel that imbues the Madrileño neighbourhood of Lavapies with a classical air.» Pachi Arroyo, Librújula
«An authentic novel about true love. Unequivocal. No half-measures. Pointblank. Emotions crossing the pages while dodging the bullets of reason. The author controls perfectly well the mechanisms of the sentimental puzle and manages to avoid the pieces falling apart or falling into the clutches of cheesy. Impossible not to fall in love with it.» Tino Pertierra, Zenda
