Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award This intimate family novel that follows the rise and fall of a great love is also a moving tribute to the generation that struggled to survive in Spain after the Civil War. In Open Heart, Elvira Lindo tells the story of her parents—the story of an excessive love, passionate and unstable, forged through countless fights and reconciliations, which had a profound effect on their entire family. Manuel Lindo came from nothing, but stubbornly worked his way up at the Dredging and Construction Company. Obliged to move from city to city for his job, the family couldn’t put down roots, and Elvira and her siblings’ childhood was marked by unpredictability. As they pass through temporary homes, they’re caught between Manuel’s outsized temper and their young mother’s worsening illness, which would tragically take her life. Beginning with nine-year-old Manuel’s experience in Madrid in 1939, Open Heart takes us on a sweeping journey through Spain full of beautifully observed insights about love in its many forms.

エルビラ・リンドが描く本作は、スペイン内戦後の激動を背景に、情熱と不安定さが同居する両親の愛を綴った魂の回想録です。野心家だが激情に駆られる父と、病に蝕まれる母。家族という逃れられない迷宮を、文学のメスで解剖するような鋭い筆致と、根底に流れる深い慈愛が共鳴し、読者の胸を激しく揺さぶります。 単なる私小説を超え、根無し草の生活を余儀なくされた世代の哀歌である点も見事です。予測不能な怒りと孤独が織りなす人間模様は、愛とは許しであり呪縛でもあるという真理を突きつけます。記憶の断片を鮮烈な情景へと昇華させた文体は、読む者の魂を震わせ、忘れがたい読書体験を約束してくれるでしょう。