Such small hands by Andrés Barba

Spanish writer Andrés Barba presents the English version of “Las manos pequeñas” in conversation with Idra Novey.

Such Small Hands

• Original title: Las manos pequeñas
• Translated by Lisa Dillman, winner of the 2016 Best Translated Book Award. Afterword by Edmund White.

Life changes at the orphanage the day seven-year-old Marina shows up. She is different from the other girls: at once an outcast and object of fascination. As Marina struggles to find her place, she invents a game whose rules are dictated by a haunting violence. Written in hypnotic, lyrical prose, alternating between Marina’s perspective and the choral we of the other girls, Such Small Hands evokes the pain of loss and the hunger for acceptance.

About Andrés Barba

Andrés Barba first gained renown with his novel La hermana de Katia, nominated for the Premio Herralde and turned into a movie by Mijke de Jong. Other major works include Versiones de Teresa, recipient of the Premio Torrente Ballester and Muerte de un caballo, winner of the Premio Juan March. Barba was also named one of the Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists by Granta magazine. His work has been translated into several European languages.

About Idra Novey

Idra Novey is the author of the novel Ways to Disappear, an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist for First Fiction and the winner of the 2016 Brooklyn Eagles Prize. Her fiction and poetry have been translated into ten languages and she’s written for the New York Times, the L.A. Times, and the Paris Review. She is also a translator, most recently of Clarice Lispector’s novel The Passion According to G.H.