Description

‘A ghost story without ghosts that, beyond the beauty of its form, explores solitude, the twists and turns of our lives, and the unfathomable complexities of affection.’ Mariana Enriquez

While preparing an empty house for sale, a woman encounters an unblinking seven-year-old boy, trapped there from another era, like an insect preserved in amber. Unable to articulate what he needs, the child draws her into an unsettling bond that neither can escape … until they understand what has caused it.

With incredible precision, this deeply disquieting novel weaves together doppelgangers and time loops in the tradition of a classic ghost story. Yet its contemporary sensibility – where lyricism meets cruelty – evokes the dark horror of Shirley Jackson.

From one of the most renowned Spanish-language authors working today, Last Day of a Prior Life is a masterful dissection of human longing and the ties that bind us, even across time itself.

Publisher Review

'Barba has perfectly understood the aggressiveness that sometimes defines our romantic encounters, and the clarity of his prose is the perfect vehicle.' * Times Literary Supplement * 'Every now and then an author not only documents reality, but creates an entirely new reality, one that illuminates our darkest feelings. Kafka did it. Bruno Schulz did it. And now also the Spanish writer Andres Barba.' -- Edmund White 'A ghostly novel without ghosts that beyond its formal beauty investigates loneliness, the loops in which our lives revolve, and the unfathomable difficulties of affection.' -- Mariana Enriquez 'With a quote from Lewis Carroll at the beginning and references to Henry James, Charles Dickens, and Shirley Jackson, Last Day of a Prior Life confirms what Barba describes as a return to the genre.' * ABC Cultural * 'Last Day of a Prior Life is, perhaps, a novel about isolation, loneliness, and memory, but also about the need for healing and redemption. One feels a strange hopefulness when finishing it.' * El Mundo * 'Barba fuses past and present ... reminiscent of classics of the ghost genre and full of lyricism, delicacy, and cruelty.' * Expansion * Praise for A Luminous Republic: 'In an acute translation by Lisa Dillman, [the narrator's] excavation draws on his memories, but also on the documentaries and scholarly studies that sought to explain the freakish episode, giving a gripping metaphysical dimension to the horror story.' -- Sam Sacks * The Wall Street Journal * Praise for A Luminous Republic: 'Barba has displayed an enviable gift for conveying, through an inventively abstract style, the strange worlds of childhood and early adolescence.' * New York Times * Praise for A Luminous Republic: 'A Luminous Republic has all the stark power of a folk-tale or a fable. It also raises concerns that are pressing and contemporary - about the function and source of language, about public paranoia and hysteria, about the idea of community, and how information spreads. At the book's centre is a moving personal story about memory and loss. The narrative is engaging, at times playful, wholly compelling.' -- Colm Toibin, New York Times-bestselling author of Nora Webster and Brooklyn Praise for Such Small Hands: 'For Barba, it's the limits on narrative form that open the door for probing the psychological questions of childhood ... Dillman's translation is exquisite ... Dillman manages to strike the right balance between not alienating readers with direct translations of labyrinthine Spanish prose while also not changing the meaning, mood, and metaphors of the original ... stunning and beautiful prose.' -- Becquer Seguin * Los Angeles Review of Books * Praise for Such Small Hands: 'Such Small Hands is a magnificently chilling antidote to society's reverence for ideas of infantile innocence and purity ... [Barba] drags his readers into a hyperreal world of childhood ... Lisa Dillman's translation is as evocative as a reader could wish for ... the path is set towards a shocking and bloody denouement worthy of the most spine-tingling horror film.' -- Lucy Scholes * Financial Times *