Siete Casas Vacias

There are seven houses, and they are empty. The narrator, according to Rodrigo Fresán, is "a sane scientist observing madmen, or people who are seriously considering going mad." And sanity, as always, is superficial. For ten years now, Samanta Schweblin has been drawing us into Seven Empty Houses, and around them, she compels her characters to explore everyday terrors, to dissect their own and others' fears, and to lay bare the prejudices of those who, caught between estrangement and a rarefied "normality," observe others and themselves. Schweblin's sharp and precise prose, her ability to create dense and unsettling atmospheres, and the chilling range of sensations that run through her stories have made this book one of the most important of the last decade.