Synopses & Reviews
A searing family drama from one of Latin America's most original voices.
One trip. Two love stories. Three voices.
Lito is ten years old and is almost sure he can change the weather when he concentrates very hard. His father, Mario, anxious to create a memory that will last for his son's lifetime, takes him on a road trip in a truck called Pedro. But Lito doesn't know that this might be their last trip: Mario is gravely ill. Together, father and son embark on a journey takes them through strange geographies that seem to meld the different parts of the Spanish-speaking world. In the meantime, Lito's mother, Elena, restlessly seeks support in books, and soon undertakes an adventure of her own that will challenge her moral limits. Each narrative — of father, son, and mother — embodies one of the different ways that we talk to ourselves: through speech, through thought, and through writing. While neither of them dares to tell the complete truth to the other two, their individual voices nonetheless form a poignant conversation.
Sooner or later, we all face loss. André's Neuman movingly narrates the ways the lives of those who survive loss are transformed; how that experience changes our ideas about time, memory, and our own bodies; and how the acts of reading, and of sex, can serve as powerful modes of resistance. Talking to Ourselves presents a tender yet unsentimental portrait of the workings of love and family; a reflection both on grief and on the consolation of words. Neuman, the author of the award-winning Traveler of the Century, displays his characteristic warmth, bittersweet humor, and wide-ranging intellect, giving us the rich, textured, and strikingly different voices and experiences of three singular characters while presenting, above all, a profound tribute to those who have ever had to care for a loved one.
Review
"[Andrés Neuman is] a significant fixture in Spanish-language literature....[A] contemporary family drama and unflinching story of grief....Talking to Ourselves is a more intimate chamber piece...a literary adventure that pays tribute to the classic road tales." The New York Times
Review
"This triptych of a dying man's commitment to his family and their response will infuse readers with its poignant, realistic experience." Library Journal
Review
"An intimate and honest portrait of estranged love and inevitable loss in taut, exacting prose....Neuman's pitch-perfect, sympathetic characters create an intensely moving story that resists both saccharine sentimentality and easy closure. This nuanced juxtaposition of perspectives solidifies Neuman's place in the Spanish-language literary pantheon alongside César Aira, Roberto Bolaño, and Javier Marías." Booklist (starred review)
Review
"Neuman's first novel to be translated into English, Traveler of the Century, was an enormous feat of fabulism, and was critically acclaimed when it appeared here in 2012. Talking to Ourselves demonstrates Neuman's range by running in completely the opposite direction. This comparatively short work is set in the present day, and alternates among the voices of three family members. For those who missed Traveler of the Century, it may be an equally potent introduction to Neuman's work." The Millions
Review
"This is writing of a quality rarely encountered, which actually feels as though it touches on reality, translating something experienced into words, without loss of detail or clarity. That shouldn't be rare but when you read Neuman's beautiful novel, you realize a very high bar has been set." The Guardian
Review
"[A] gem of a novel, Talking to Ourselves is a profound meditation on illness, death and bereavement and brilliantly illustrates literature's ability to help readers confront and understand mortality....Neuman is a master craftsman." The Independent
About the Author
Andrés Neuman was born in 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and grew up in Spain. He was selected as one of Granta's Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists and was elected to the Bogotá39 list. Traveler of the Century (FSG, 2012) was the winner of the Alfaguara Prize and the National Critics Prize, Spain's two most prestigious literary awards, as well as of a special commendation from the jury of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Neuman has taught Latin American literature at the University of Granada.