Friday, February 8, 2019, London.- Yesterday, the presentation of the book Mouthful of Birds, the first English translation of Samanta Schweblin's book "Pájaros en la boca", took place at the Official Residence.
Samanta Schweblin has gained wide recognition in the literary world and especially in the United Kingdom after her participation, with the support of this Embassy, in Hay Festival 2017. Her first novel Fever Dream (Distancia de Rescate) was nominated for the Man Booker Prize that same year. In October of last year, also with the support of this Embassy, she participated in the London Book Festival at the Southbank Center.
The event had a large audience of around 80 people formed by members of the literary field as well as the Argentine and British community. During the event, the London Book Review literary critic Gareth Evans, made an entertaining and meticulous interview with the author, who also read excerpts from her work in Spanish and English.
The book is for sale at the following link:
https://oneworld-publications.com/mouthful-of-birds-pb.html
Reviews:
“Schweblin is among the most acclaimed Spanish-language writers of her generation…. [H]er true ancestor could only be David Lynch; her tales are woven out of dread, doubles and confident loose ends…. What makes Schweblin so startling as a writer, however, what makes her rare and important, is that she is impelled not by mere talent or ambition but by vision, and that vision emerges from intense concern with the world, with the hidden cruelties in our relationships with all that is vulnerable — children, rivers, language, one another.” —New York Times
“The author’s flair for intertwining surrealism with delicate emotionality is again on full display in Mouthful of Birds, a collection of short stories that sit somewhere between miniature mysteries and fairy tales. In this slim and superb book, Schweblin takes on the desire to love, to parent, and to care for one’s own body—hardly extraordinary themes—and invests them with a fresh poignancy.” —Vogue
“Admirers of Schweblin’s work will be delighted to learn that she hasn’t lost any of the atmospheric creepiness that made Fever Dream such an unsettling ride. Mouthful of Birds, is just as ethereal and bizarre as its predecessor, and it proves that Schweblin is a master of elegant and uncanny fiction…. Schweblin is gifted at treating the otherworldly with a matter-of-fact attitude, writing about the surreal as if it were unremarkable…. And her writing, beautifully translated by Megan McDowell, is consistently perfect; she can evoke more feelings in one sentence than many writers can in a whole story. Fans of literature that looks at the world from a skewed point of view will find much to love in Schweblin’s book, and so will anyone who appreciates originality and bold risk-taking. Mouthful of Birds is a stunning achievement from a writer whose potential is beginning to seem limitless.” —NPR
