This World Does Not Belong to Us
by Natalia García Freire
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Pub Date Jun 21 2022 | Archive Date May 03 2022
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Description
“One of the debut novels that most stood out this year in Latin America.”
—New York Times
After years away, Lucas returns uninvited to the home he was expelled from as a child. The garden has been conquered by weeds, which blanket his mother’s beloved flowerbeds and his father’s grave alike. A lot has changed since Eloy and Felisberto were invited into the family home to work for Lucas’s father, long ago. The two hulking strangers have brought the land and everyone on it under their control—and removed nuisances like Lucas. Now everything rots. Lucas, a hardened young man, turns to a world that thrives in dirt and darkness: the world of insects. In raw, lyrical prose, García Freire portrays a world brought low by human greed, while hinting at glimmers of hope in the unlikeliest places.
NATALIA GARCÍA FREIRE was born in Cuenca in 1991. She teaches Creative Writing at Azuay University in Ecuador and has also worked as a primary school teacher. García Freire’s journalistic work has appeared in outlets such as BBC Mundo and Univisión, and her short story “Noche de fiesta” was published in the Spanish literary journal La gran belleza. This World Does Not Belong to Us is García Freire’s debut novel. It was nominated for the Tigre Juan literary award and selected by the New York Times as one of the best Spanish-language books of 2019. It has been translated into Italian, French, and Turkish.
Advance Praise
Praise for This World Does Not Belong to Us
“One of the debut novels that most stood out this year in Latin America.” —New York Times
“García Freire manages to make us sweat with her characters. Feel the sting of their bites. This novel demonstrates a salient maturity, exudes literary knowledge, and takes risks. The writer masters the world of emotions and the words to encapsulate it.” —El País
“This book is pure beauty, pure love for the written word.” —Cope Blog
“García Freire takes us to the deepest parts of the human condition.” —Página Dos
“Full of courage and lucidity, Natalia García Freire writes against the current, she doesn’t care about buzz or dogmas. Her writing is inhabited by the voices of literary masters. What a mature novel from a twenty-nine-year-old who knows so much about life, the passing of time, old age, the absence of God and death. There are books that can only be written by those who love plants devastatingly. This is one of them.” —El Universo
“This World Does Not Belong to Us leads the reader into the deepest, darkest regions of human existence, where what is most infected and rotten becomes beautiful and liberating.” —Toda Literatura
“Why do we need to read this book? Because like all good literature, as full of inventions as it may seem, it contains a core of truth about human nature. We need to read this book because we are all parents or children and at some point we have questioned or question what it is to be a father, what it is to be a child. And above all because it tells us about a completely alien world that exists right next to us, or next to our feet—the world of insects.” —Recordo
“A maturity that leaves you breathless. This great writer forces us to lie down on the earth and be touched by insects, plants, and matter.” —Radio Nacional España
“Natalia García Freire is unbelievably young to have written a first work of such talent.” —Relatos en construcción
“There’s an echo of Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo in this novel. The return home, the search for a father or at least the memory of him. The ghosts. Only here, instead of the murmurs, we have a constant buzzing of insects and the noise of animals.” —MARÍA JOSÉ NAVIA, author of SANT
“I am moved by its tenderness, the shadow of its flight, the kingdom it comes from. Insect and poverty. Larva and death.” —DARA SCULLY, author of Animal de nieve
Marketing Plan
• Advance reader and digital reader copies
• ABA White Box Mailing
• National TV, radio, print, and online review campaign
• Virtual or in-person author events
• Book club discussion guide
• Bookstore co-op available
• Excerpt placement
• Social media campaign
• Giveaways: Goodreads & Shelf Awareness
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781642861150 |
| PRICE | $17.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 160 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Jayoti M, Reviewer
This book is beautifully haunting. If you like magical realism, you would definitely enjoy the story here of a boy named Lucas. The story is almost bittersweet and sad but you'll like it.
Reviewer 299370
If you like magical realism and lyrical musings then you will love this poetic ballad of a book. Lucas returns to the home he lived a carefree, gilded childhood before two thugs arrived and brought about the destruction of his family.. Te gardens of the house now lie in ruins, nature has re established its dominace. weeds grown on his father's grave and lucas muses on what happens to our loved ones bodies after death, the circle of insect life from larvae to death and ponders questions such as , has life any meaning, what does it mean to be a son or a father?
Bethany C, Reviewer
A striking, lyrical story about the tragic life of a young boy, and how he is just part of a larger picture, a larger world. Cinematic and evocative, this book is full of despair and darkness, but with a glimmer of beauty hidden deep within the pages. Despite the range of topics and emotions Freire covers throughout, this story is relatively short and easy to follow - managing to say a lot without saying much at all. Definitely a beautiful, thought-provoking piece of literature.
Helen N, Book Trade Professional
A beautifully written book that meanders through the strange and wonderful mind of Lucas, a boy thrown out of his home by two thugs who arrive and take his previously gilded life away from him.
It’s a short book with so much left unsaid and so much minutely described that your imagination fills in the gaps.
For a first novel, very striking in its style and depth.
Sookie S, Reviewer
This is a hard book to review as the narrator, Lucas, and us the readers experience visual explosions together. The lyrical flow of Freire's writing is the master stroke that makes this bleak story of tragic past, stand out. More than the story, its how the author connects past and present, land to the heart, and death and decay with hope and rebirth. Its fascinating in the way Lucas, the protagonist who narrates this, talks to his dead father as he goes through the adulthood and evaluates life from the moment it went wrong to his family to the fate he he now lives.
Thank you to Netgalley and OneWorld Editions for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review
Cat S, Reviewer
This book draws you in with its exquisite and poetic detail. Lucas returns to his childhood home many years after being forcibly removed. Yearning for the past joy and unconditional love of his mother, before the unwelcome intrusion of two hulking strangers who destroy his idyllic childhood. Lucas is revulsed by his father, who willingly empowers the darkness and decay inflicted by the strangers. As an escape, he finds solace in the world of his insect friends. A beautifully described and haunting narrative exploring death, religion and family relationships.
Thank you NetGalley and World Editions for the opportunity to review this book.
Sophie G, Reviewer
Freire's is a solid debut; the prose is delicate and reminds the reader, inevitably, of Marquez, whilst the themes are explored in a sincere and sharp manner.
Katie S, Educator
Incredible debut and a wonderful read. I always think we are so lucky that so many books are translated so we can enjoy literature from all over the world.
I truly enjoyed this very filmic work, and will be looking out for more from this author.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.
Andrea V, Reviewer
“Don't you think that, after our deaths, after everything, it is they who are the stronger ones? And that, all things considered, perhaps this world does not belong to us, but to those miniscule beings, so numerous that they could bury us completely if they ever came together.”
Genre: Fiction
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: Discusses death. Also, insects and dead animals are prominent topics, if you have a phobia related to any insect, don’t read this book.
“This World Does Not Belong to Us” follows Lucas as he visits his childhood home after he was sent off and sold into slavery. Since then, his father has died and his mother has been labeled a madwoman—oh, and two strangers they had invited into their home years back are now permanently living it.
This book is deeply troubled and yet somehow beautifully poetic. It feels like it’s Lucas’s way of grieving not only his father’s death but all he lost when he was sent away. Between a series of flashbacks, Lucas relives the days he spent in the home that is no longer his.
I would recommend this book to people who like magical realism. So, people who have enjoyed books by authors like Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, and Isabel Allende. These books are filled with absurd circumstances that are portrayed as if they’re not absurd at all. I can see why this debut novel is so highly acclaimed in its original language, congratulations to Natalia García Freire and thanks to Victor Meadowcroft for this beautiful translation.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amyn B, Reviewer
I enjoyed the writing style but I was in the mood for a good story. So, it's more a me thing than anything I think.
Nicki M, Reviewer
This World Does Not Belong to Us by Natalia García Freire is a lyrical novella that touches on a number of themes in its short page count, including death, family relationships, connection with nature and religious belief. It has a lot to say, and it does so in a succinct way, but now and then I found myself wishing for the book to be a little longer, so it could explore these ideas more fully. Lucas was an interesting character and I was immediately drawn into his world and his feelings, and overall I found the story thought provoking and evocative. For me, it was a 3.5-star read that I will round up to a four.
Sandor K, Reviewer
The book is like a long lyrical poem, a ballad about death, life, family, religion, nature, the meaning and meaninglessness of life, its beauty and brutality. It will really be understood by those who were or are in a similar situation or who have not had a good relationship with their father, but we mourn his death, we are sorry we can no longer tell him our feelings. And the tragedy for all of us is that we have to imagine what happens to our loved ones after they die. And we know it’s a natural process, yet we can’t reconcile with the horroristic, horrible images that appear before us. And this is when we think about what the meaning of life is, and what was the meaning of the life of the father, the mother, why they loved or hated, if they were already dead, if only their bodies were feasted under the ground by insects.
Thanks to the writer for this beautiful lyrical, yet naturally brutal, but sincere poem, and thanks to Netgalley and World Editions for the opportunity to read this book.
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