Kirjailijakuva

Jon Bilbao

Teoksen The Strangers tekijä

13 teosta 149 jäsentä 14 arvostelua

Tietoja tekijästä

Includes the name: Jon Bilbao Lopategui

Tekijän teokset

The Strangers (2021) 31 kappaletta
Still the Same Man (2011) 27 kappaletta
ESTRÓMBOLI (2016) 14 kappaletta
Bajo el influjo del cometa (2010) 8 kappaletta
Shakespeare y la ballena blanca (2013) 6 kappaletta
FÍSICA FAMILIAR (2014) 4 kappaletta
ARAÑA (IMPEDIMENTA) (2023) 4 kappaletta
El hermano de las moscas (2007) 3 kappaletta
REGRESO DEL HIRCOCERVO,EL (1900) 2 kappaletta

Merkitty avainsanalla

Yleistieto

Virallinen nimi
Bilbao Lopetegui, Juan Bautista
Syntymäaika
1972
Sukupuoli
male
Kansalaisuus
Spain
Syntymäpaikka
Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain

Jäseniä

Kirja-arvosteluja

A hurricane is on its way to the Yucatán peninsula--the Mexican Riviera. Joanes, his wife and daughter have been vacationing there after attending the wedding of his wife's father. Now, guests at their resort are preparing to evacuate further inland. After a strange encounter with a chimpanzee while driving around, Joanes sends his family ahead with the other resort guests and says he will follow the next day.

The book begins with seemingly normal people and events, though with a great sense of foreboding, partly due to the impending hurricane, but also because of other strange events. On the road the next day, for example, Joanes comes across his former mathmatics professor from university stranded by the roadside with his wheelchair-bound wife. Many other strange encounters ensue.

Back in the late 60's/early 70's, movies directed by Sam Peckinpaugh (?spelling) were very popular. They were extremely violent, for the time anyway--perhaps they'd be quite tame nowadays. This book reminded me of one of those movies. There's a lot of violence, and all of a reader's forebodings and fears are played out. The book almost strays into the realm of horror. One reviewer on Amazon described it as an "anxious" read.

Nevertheless I quite liked the book. I was never quite sure where the author was going, but it is well-written, and I quite enjoyed the ride.

3 stars
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
arubabookwoman | 1 muu arvostelu | Sep 28, 2023 |
Jon and Katharina had left the big city for the winter and moved to Jon's childhood home, high on the rocks above a small village on the Cantabrian coast. They both can work remotely and as the winter progresses, they settle into their own worlds - living together but living almost separately, working on separate floors and drifting away from each other. Then one night curious lights show up over the village and all the Ufologists in the area converge on the village, disturbing the peace and the couple's attempt at calm life. That would have been bad enough. But then Markel and Virginia show up - with Markel claiming to be a distant cousin who had grown up in Chile and before long the two of them move into the house as well.

The two couples (even though Markel keeps claiming that Virginia works for him actually) don't really have much in common and the newcomers seem to be making themselves at home in ways that Jon and Katharina find troubling. The fact that Jon cannot remember Markel at all while Markel claims they had made does not help either. Neither do the ufologists camping outside of their doors.

The novella has a very gothic feeling - from the house and its position, through the descriptions and to the almost weird happenings. I've seen it reviewed as science fiction and I can see how that can be read that way (Markel and Virginia show up when the lights did and disappear after they come again) but the author never gives a definitive answer - were they who they claimed to be or were they swindlers who had done their homework or were they alien. The reader is left to decide for themselves - and depending on how one is inclined, it may be any of those. In all cases, they were the strangers - the ones who did not belong - even if noone really finds out why.

I liked the style and the language but I found the whole thing a bit incomplete. It feels like a part of something bigger more than a standalone tale - and not just because of the lack of resolution. It does make one feel unsettled (as all good gothic tales do) so it works for that but I wish we either got a resolution (even a hint of one). I can see what the author attempted to do though even if it did not work for me completely.
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
AnnieMod | 1 muu arvostelu | Jun 7, 2023 |
Premio Ojo Crítico de Narrativa 2008. Una pareja abandona la ciudad para rehacer su vida en una casa construida a espaldas de un viejo bosque. Apenas instalados en ella, la mujer es asaltada en un sueño por la imagen de una invasión de ardillas. Intentan tomar la casa. En el sueño, Bambú, el perro de la pareja, las enfrenta y se pierde tras ellas en la espesura. Al día siguiente Bambú ha desaparecido. Desde ese momento, en las pesadillas de la mujer los roedores seguirán acechando la casa con creciente violencia en cada ocasión, como una horda de inquietantes emisarios del bosque.… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
Natt90 | Jul 6, 2022 |
En este libro, lo inquietante y lo amenazador surgen de lo cotidiano. Así, una ballena varada en la playa puede estropear el tranquilo día de verano del que pensaba disfrutar una familia. Curiosear a esos vecinos que leen la Biblia puede alterar la paz de una pareja de agnósticos. El paso de un cometa sacude inexplicablemente la existencia de los habitantes de un pequeño pueblo costero. Incluso retirarse unos días a la montaña puede complicarse si se entablan relaciones con un zorro. Puestos a prueba por tales situaciones, los personajes de estos relatos se ven forzados a conocerse mejor. Lo que descubren les sorprende, y en algunos casos les asusta. Cuando se encuentran con esa faceta oscura y hasta entonces desconocida de sí mismos, las cosas no tienen por qué empeorar. No siempre.… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
Natt90 | 1 muu arvostelu | Jul 5, 2022 |

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Associated Authors

Sophie Hughes Translator
Katie Whittemore Translator

Tilastot

Teokset
13
Jäseniä
149
Arvio (tähdet)
½ 3.6
Kirja-arvosteluja
14
ISBN:t
24
Kielet
1

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