A Crack in the Wall

Claudia Piñeiro

NOVEL. ALFAGUARA, 2009. 256 PAGES.

SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ PRIZE 2010

What price must one pay to change the course of their life and make their dreams come true? Although Pablo Simó has a deep urge to build the tower of his dreams, he limits himself to drawing it: for the past twenty years he’s been working at an architecture studio that he can’t, or won’t, leave. Twenty years is also the amount of time he’s spent married to Laura, but all that keeps them together now is habit and a typically rebellious adolescent daughter. When a young woman arrives unexpectedly at the studio looking for Nelson Jara, a secret will begin to be revealed that involves Simó, his boss and a work colleague. The girl’s appearance and subsequent revelations about the past will open up a crack in the precarious stability of the architect’s life and see all the certainties on which he had always depended crumble away one by one. Once more, the author of The Thursday Widows demonstrates her talent for creating enthralling characters and telling stories in which suspense is combined with social portraiture and criticism. A Crack in the Wall is, in this regard, a reflection on marriage and mid-life crisis and the difficulties of living in a world severely restricted by social mores. This is an unsettling novel that asks whether changing the course of your life means also having to give up your innocence.

PUBLISHED BY: Spanish ALFAGUARA | Arabic AL ARABI | English worldwide BITTER LEMON PRESS | Germany UNIONSVERLAG | Italy FELTRINELLI | Serbia PROFIL

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