The Black Holes: 02/17/24

The Black Holes by Borja González (2018) es el primero libro de "las tres noches", a graphic novel series where the first book was published in English as A Gift for a Ghost. When I wrote that review I said I would be re-reading it in the original Spanish. I finally have.

The book begins with a woman meeting a skeleton and asking them if they are dead. The skeleton replies that no, they are not dead. But the two speakers are divided by time and quite possibly by space, though they meet at a lake by a forest.

When I read the translation I said I wasn't sure if the two plots ever converge via time travel other wibbly wobbly timey wimey reasons. Having now read the Spanish I can say that they do. These conversations are done across time with subjunctive conjugations probably not usually seen when speaking of death. But they are here and the imply a distance of time in ways that the English doesn't.

Despite having read the book once in translation and despite it being a graphic novel with few words, I found it tricky at times. Part of that's my own fault, choosing to read it in a noisy coffeeshop which frequently has a mixture of languages (English, Tagalog, Spanish, and Mandarin being the most common ones spoken there).

But it's also the text. The characters are young women and they speak like young women. Meaning, they speak in slang and partial sentences. It's no fault of the author or the women portrayed. It's how people are. Since the author is from Badajoz, Spain, the language he uses is different from the Spanish dialects I am most familiar with (primarily Mexicano and Latino Americano more broadly). Spain-Spanish is as different as British English is from American English and that's before we even get into regional dialects.

The next book in the series is Grito Nocturno (2021) or Night Cry. I have the Spanish language version on hand to read soon.

Five stars

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