waiting for the flood
waiting for the flood is a crime novel written by the Spanish author Dolores Redondo —known for being awarded the Planeta Prize thanks to her book All this I will give you (2016). The work was published by the Destino publishing house in 2022. It is a self-conclusive book that seeks to move away from the acclaimed Baztán trilogy, with much more intimate scenes, close to the deepest feelings and thoughts of its characters.
Like a thriller that it is, waiting for the flood he never neglects crime, its causes and its consequences, the terror that moves the protagonists and drives the villain. However, his more intimate approach is a resource that allows finding nuances in all the elements belonging to this narrative. While the ingredients change, the tension remains. The novel has a calm beginning, but it gives way to the hectic with each chapter.
Synopsis of waiting for the flood
Historical context of the work
waiting for the flood is partially Inspired by two fundamental historical facts: those referring to the murderer in Glasgow, and the natural disaster that devastated Bilbao in the eighties. On the one hand, we have the villain, Bible John —John Biblia, in Spanish—, accused of insulting and taking the lives of three young, dark-haired women between 1968 and 1969. According to investigations, the man filed all his victims at Barrowland Ballroom , a Scottish nightclub.
The Bible John case—dubbed so by the media because of several quotes the perpetrator made from the Bible, which condemn adultery—was never solved. To date it is not known who the Glasgow murderer was, and this helps his construction as a villain in Dolores Redondo's novel. On the other hand, the author borrows the history of the catastrophe in Euskal Herria in 1983, and turns it into another protagonist of her work.
The persecution and the disaster
Even though the narrator of waiting for the flood is omniscient, the story mainly follows Noah Scott Sherrington, a Scottish policeman who manages to find the whereabouts of the serial killer Bible John. Before being able to arrest him, the detective suffers a heart attack, and the fugitive escapes again. Against all odds, the protagonist ignores his doctor's warnings to chase the monster.
In this context, his inquiries take him to Bilbao in 1983, a Basque city that, curiously, is about to suffer a massive flood. Although the works of Dolores Redondo are closely associated with the water and its cognitive connotations, en waiting for the flood this element becomes one of the most powerful main characters written by the author. This gives considerable strength to the respective setting of a plot that is simmering.
The Construction of Noah Scott Sherrington
Noah Scott Sherrington is not a typical protagonist of the most famous detective books: a lone wolf, reluctant to experiment with human emotions, who distances himself from any image of weakness. On the contrary. The main character of waiting for the flood He is a sick, fragile man, who has very little time left to live. However, the powerlessness of his body he compensates for with his strength of character, which, at the same time, is not noticeable at first glance.
Noah Scott Sherrington and waiting for the flood They present an image of how fear is a conditioning factor for certain actions. In addition, the novel creates around it a reflection about power, who has it and how they use it, for better or worse. In the same way, this is a title about characters, since they are the general focus of the work, more than the plot itself or the setting. The most satisfying thing is to understand people, not facts.
A walk with Noah
Noah Scott Sherrington's search for Bible John isn't breakneck, it's slow. The protagonist must face many obstacles before finding his villain, and he has to do it while he turns against himself. All the internal conflicts with which the main character is built make it clear who he is, why he continues this almost ineffective persecution, and, furthermore, the reasons why he relates in such or such a way with others.
Noah is the heart of waiting for the flood, and this is more noticeable when referring to its defects, because they make it even more realistic. The protagonist is defined by various prisms, which denote their pain as much as those small achievements that make the reader deeply repair. Even his name has meaning. Coupled with Noah is his political context, which ends up catapulting the deplorable of a contaminated society.
About the author, Dolores Redondo Meira
Dolores Round.
Dolores Redondo Meira was born in 1969, in San Sebastián, Spain. Redondo began writing from a very early age, specifically, from the age of 14; however, her academic studies have little or nothing to do with literature. The author started a law degree at the University of Deusto, although she never finished it. Later he devoted himself to Gastronomic Restoration.
Thanks to this, she worked in several restaurants, and managed to own her own gourmet center. Dolores Redondo became known in the literary field thanks to the creation of short stories and stories. His first formal novel was The privileges of the angel, published in 2009. Through her work she has become a best-selling author. In 2018 she won the Bancarella prize for an Italian version of her novel All this I will give you.
Maybe Dolores Redondo's best-known material is The Baztán Trilogy, made of The invisible guardian, Legacy in the bones y Offering to the storm. This saga stars police officer Amaia Salazar, and begins with the discovery of the corpse of a teenager. Dolores Redondo almost always opts for the scandalous and direct black novel.
Other books by Dolores Redondo
- Baztán trilogy (2015);
- The invisible guardian (2012);
- Legacy in the bones (2013);
- Offering to the storm (2014);
- The north face of the heart (2019)