this book is incredible

Tarantula (2024) by Eduardo Halfon, translated by Daniel Hahn

🕷️

I pulled this off the shelves at Burley Fisher last week on a whim (or not a total whim – I’ve been picking books based on their size, and then when I saw it had won the Spanish-language Critic’s Prize, and best foreign novel in a French prize, and it had something to do with Guatemala, a place I know nothing about, knew I was going to buy it). It was so slight and powerful like a pin disappearing into skin. I can’t really get over it. and I want to tell people to read it but at the same time, I don’t want to tell them anything about it, because the structure of the book lets the reader discover things in such an excellent and disarming pattern and pace. I just have to hope that my own standing as a critic will be enough trust for you to pick it up and enjoy that discovery for yourself. Maybe all I will say is that it is the experience of a Jewish Guatemalan boy. It’s about this thing that happened to him as a kid. It’s about this secret thing that keeps on happening. It’s about cycles of violence, and the tipping point between violence and protection. I think it is a perfect book, just trust me!