lunes, 20 de julio de 2020

Hotel silencio. Narrativa islandesa.


Profesora de historia del arte en la universidad y escritora a tiempo parcial aunque con éxito internacional desde su primer libro. 

Su exploración del amor, la maternidad, la paternidad, es original y sorprendente, llena de un curioso sentido del humor y un ritmo rápido y ágil. 

Hotel Silencio te lleva a un país que trata de recuperarse de una guerra y en el que falta de todo. Allí un hombre, llegado de muy lejos,  trata de acabar con su vida después de una crisis vital en la que pierde todo lo que le sostenía hasta entonces. Su mujer le abandona y le dice que no es el verdadero padre de su única hija. 

En el destartalado hotel que ha reservado en un país del que no sabe nada todos sienten curiosidad por ese hombre y tratan de conocer las razones de su estancia allí. 
EL que lleve consigo una taladradora y su caja de herramientas (ya que es muy manitas y quiere colgarse del techo) y las pequeñas reparaciones que va haciendo en su habitación hace que los jóvenes dueños del ruinoso hotel le propongan trabajar allí a cambio de alojamiento. A partir de ahí las peticiones de ayuda se multiplican y no tiene mucho tiempo para ocuparse de lo que realmente le llevo hasta allí. 
Segundas oportunidades,  cambios vitales y un final optimista. Para un verano raro, recomendable... 









Jónas Ebeneser is a handy DIY kind of man with a compulsion to fix things, but he can't seem to fix his own life. On the cusp of turning fifty, divorced, adrift, he's recently discovered he is not the biological father of his daughter, Gudrun Waterlily, and he has sunk into an existential crisis, losing all will to live. As he visits his senile mother in a nursing home, he secretly muses on how, when, and where to put himself out of his misery.

To prevent his only daughter from discovering his body, Jónas decides it's best to die abroad. Armed with little more than his toolbox and a change of clothes, he flies to an unnamed country where the fumes of war still hover in the air. He books a room at the sparsely occupied Hotel Silence, and there he comes to understand the depths of other people's scars while beginning to see his wounds in a new light.

A celebration of life's infinite possibilities, of transformations and second chances, Hotel Silence is a rousing story of a man, a community, and a path toward regeneration from the depths of despair.


"Jónas Ebeneser leaves his home in Iceland for a city thousands of miles away pummeled by war and violence, now at tentative peace. He brings with him only his toolbox, scars, and grief. While he plans his suicide, the people of the town draw him out with their endless list of broken items to be fixed. With humor and simple, heart-piercing prose, Hotel Silence tells the story of a man and his past, and the community where he finds himself. Ólafsdóttir's world is full of surprise, sadness, love, and transformation. I didn't want it to end." - Bethany Ball, author of What To Do About The Solomon

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