Elvira Sastre became known for her books of poems. However, she has also tried her hand at the novel. Vulnerabilities is the last of the author's published books.Do you know what it's about?
In this article we will try to tell you, without spoilers, the story that is told between the pages of the book so that you know if you might be interested in this psychological suspense plot or if it is something that you would not like to read. Shall we start?
Synopsis of Vulnerabilities
The first impression you will have of the book Vulnerabilities is its synopsis. In her The beginning of the story is told, and some of the themes it deals with are also glimpsed, like abuse, memories, dependency...
If you haven't read it yet, here it is:
«A novel of psychological suspense that questions the power relations between two friends.
The narrator of this story, Elvira, receives a message on a social network: a young woman named Sara claims to have been a victim of abuse and is in a desperate situation. Elvira does not hesitate to offer her help and opens the doors of her privacy to him, although nothing is enough for those who do not find comfort. Little by little, Sara becomes a suffocating but necessary presence in the life of Elvira dedicated to saving her from herself.
Vulnerabilities is a story of psychological suspense that revolves around the relationship of power and dependence that is established between two wounded women and that questions the consequences of an act as apparently altruistic as helping others.
After winning the Biblioteca Breve Award in 2019 with Días sin ti, her first novel, Elvira Sastre returns to grittier fiction with a story inspired by a real episode experienced by the author. In her own words: «I try to understand through writing where our wounds are born. I have written this story to show that vulnerability is the light that illuminates the crack.
Reviews and critiques
Vulnerabilities It was published on February 14 and we might think that not enough time has passed to have enough reviews and criticisms to know if the book is interesting. And so it is, although it has opinions, there are not many reviews of the book yet.
Thus, although they are still few, many have been encouraged to read his latest book. Some of those opinions are the following:
«Reading this novel made me very uncomfortable but I could never stop reading it. Elvira's writing and her metaphors leave you hooked and amazed. "Tremendous ending."
«I am enthused by the way Elvira Sastre writes and her sensitivity. She is a writer who raises very hard topics that are very difficult to face, but she knows how to do it with a sensitivity that we could classify as magical.
Once again, a highly recommended book that maintains an extraordinary level of quality.
Elvira Sastre, without a doubt, is on her way to becoming a figure of Spanish literature.
«The facts contained in the new novel by this Segovian author, after winning the Biblioteca Breve Award with Días sin ti, scratch and sting. It is inevitable that you will get a “gut” in the pit of your stomach to the point of having to stop reading to catch your breath. Lecturapolis.
«It is a hard novel, but necessary. It is a story of many, and in this case a particular one where the narrator will try to understand what happened to her and how the vulnerabilities of two women can end up building her identities. There is an obvious criticism of a system that does not provide sufficient support to victims and that allows the existence of perpetrators. It is a beautifully written work about painful themes that keeps us in suspense throughout the novel because we do not know what the outcome of Elvira's relationship with Sara is. We highly recommend it, but considering that if you are sensitive to gender violence, this work contains explicit scenes of violence. Educafuturo.
In general, pWe can see that all the reviews found emphasize the fact that the novel is very hard. As it deals with such sensitive topics, it is not a read for everyone, and this can cause more than one person to abandon the book or directly classify it as bad for talking about those topics.
But we must not forget that The author herself narrates her own experience between those pages, even having nightmares when writing it.
Elvira Sastre, the author of Vulnerabilities
The writer who has given voice to a topic that for many is sensitive and difficult not to empathize with the victims, is Elvira Sastre. She is a poet, writer and philologist. She was born in Segovia in 1992 and is a great lover of reading thanks to her father. In fact, at just 12 years old he wrote his first poem, and at 15 he created a blog where he uploaded his writings (you can search for it because it is still active).
His literary career began with winning the Emiliano Barral Short Story Contest at the Andrés Laguna Institute. where he studied.
A few years later, and together with the publishing house Lapsus Calami, she published her first solo book, Forty-Three Ways to Let Your Hair Down, and that made other publishers notice her.
In addition to her role as a writer, she continues to work as a professional translator and has participated in the translation of other books such as Bob Dylan's Children, by Gordon E.McNeer; Everything is a lie, by E. Lockhart; or Violet makes the bridge on the grass, by the singer Lana del Rey.
Works by Elvira Sastre
If Elvira Sastre is a new author for you, you should know that Vulnerabilities is not his first book; In fact, it already has several on the market.
As of the date of this article, you can find the following:
- You the watercolor/I the lyric (Co-author)
- Forty-three ways to loosen your hair
- Bulwark
- Nobody dances anymore
- The loneliness of a body accustomed to the wound
- That shore of ours
- Days without you (his first novel)
- Bad things don't happen to good dogs
- Madrid kills me
- Goodbye to the cold
- The vulnerabilities.
You already know the book Vulnerabilities better, would you dare to read it or is it a book that you wouldn't start with because of the topic it deals with (and the harshness with which it is narrated)? We read you in comments.