Todo lo que podríamos haber sido tú y yo si no fuéramos tú y yo
by Alberto Espinosa
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial / Grijalbo
July 2015
Quisiera haberlo leído en español – me habría caído más normal.
What's different about this book
This story took me back to the years of my graduate work in Spanish literature. The stream-of-consciousness narration that fills the first third of the book was more typical of that literary body of work. Reading this in English, however, made me think the narrator was speaking of himself when he wrote, "sometimes you beat around the bush in order to avoid going straight to the root." So while this book is tagged as for teens and young adult, that age reader will need to persevere beyond the first third of the book in order to reach the more engaging --and compelling-- plot action. But the singular difference in this book is the unexpected plot twist: No, I'm not referring to the "future where everyone has given up sleeping." That's almost secondary to the slow-to-develop but deliciously intriguing major action. I was ready to put the book down one-fourth of the way in, but I'm delighted I stuck with it.
What I'll do now that I've read it
I don't know how popular this book will be for my typical patron. I think I could easily sell it to young adults who are also studying global issues and languages. And the shorter length of the book will help my book talks to students.
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