A Luminous Republic

One day, the children begin to show up in the subtropical town of San Cristóbal. Aged between nine and thirteen, the children are covered in dirt and hungry. They beg food, commit small acts of vandalism, play games that don’t seem to have any rules, and communicate with each other in a strange language. No one knows where they come from or where they disappear to each night. And then, they rob a supermarket and stab two adults, bringing fear to the town. Thus begins a fearsome and thrilling modern morality tale that retraces the lines between good and evil, the civilised and the wild, and drags our assumptions about childhood and innocence out into the light. 

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ANDRÉS BARBA (born in Madrid in 1975), became known in 2001 with La hermana de Katia (finalist of the Herralde prize and brought to the big screen by Mijke de Jong), which was followed by eight more novels that confirmed him as one of the most important Spanish novelists of his generation: Ahora Tocad Música de Baile, Versiones de Teresa (winner of the Torrente Ballester Award), Such Small Hands, August, October, Death of a Horse (winner of the Juan March Award), En Presencia de un Payaso, and A Luminous Republic (winnder of the Herralde Award, finalist for the Gregor Von Rezzori Award). He is also the author of several essays, poetry and he has translated into Spanish the works of authors including Herman Melville, Henry James, Joseph Conrad and Thomas De Quincey. He was chosen by Granta magazine as one of the best young Spanish-language storytellers. His work has been translated into twenty four languages.

Praise:

"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 center is a moving personal story about memory and loss. The narrative is engaging, at times playful, wholly compelling" - Colm Tóibín