Such Small Hands – Andres Barba (trans. Lisa Dillman 2017) 101 pages
Well, this was super creepy. Institutionalised children *shudder*
Seven year old Marina is in a car accident.
“’Your father died instantly, your mother is in a coma.’ Lips pronounce them without stopping. Quick, dry words. They come in thousands of different, unpredictable ways, sometimes unbidden. Suddenly they just fall, as if onto a field. Marina’s learned to say them without sadness, like a name recited for strangers, like my name is Marina and I’m seven years old. ‘My father died instantly, my mother is in the hospital.’”
After her mother dies, Marina is sent to an orphanage, taking a doll given to her by the psychologist, which she has also called Marina. The other girls are both mesmerised and wary of Marina.
“Marina shrank and we grew. She stood alone, with her doll, by the statue of Saint Anne, watching us. Or was it the doll who was watching? We didn’t know who the doll really was. Because sometimes she looked like Marina, and she, too, seemed to have a hungry heart, and clenched fists close to her body, and she, too, was silent even when invited to join in; and she nodded her head back and forth, something we’d never seen a doll do before. And she seemed persecuted and excluded, too.”
Neither Marina or the girls understand the relationships they forge. There is fear and eroticism mixed in with tentative gestures towards friendship. Marina’s scar from the accident is a source of wonder.
“‘You can’t feel it?’
‘No. Well, only a little.’
Desire passed through the girl, too. Like stagnant water that suddenly begins to drain, imperceptibly.
And devotion mixed in with the desire.
‘Do you want to touch it?’
‘Yes.’
But the girl didn’t react right away.”
Barba gradually builds the tension and develops the girls’ games into something deeply disturbing and sinister, but wholly believable (there is an afterword which explains the real-life inspiration for the story). This tale will haunt me for a long time.
madame bibi lophile recommends 
Might make me sound like the kind of person you wouldn’t like to meet in the dark, but this is exactly my kind of creepy read. It’s been on my TBR list for a while, but have yet to find it.
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I think what makes it so creepy is the way it’s done means it’s all too believable – and then I found out it was based on actual events. I really hope you like it (if that also doesn’t make me sound too peculiar!) when you read it Marina Sofia!
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I remember when this was published it was all over Twitter at the same time as the many mentions of Trump’s tiny hands. Somehow the two became bound up in my mind.
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Haha! Well, the novella does present a nightmarish vision, but it’s also intelligent, erudite and coherent, with a moral conscience so there the similarity ends 😉
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Ok that *does* sound creepy….. 😱😱
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It definitely is!
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Ooh, this one has just leapt into pole position! You’re on a roll this weekend! 😀
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This is so strange Fiction Fan, I just found this comment in my spam folder. Despite the fact that you’d commented on another post minutes before and that one was allowed through – the gremlins of wordpress spam filters are contrary beasts!
I’m very pleased that I’ve managed to convince you of this one – I hope you enjoy it, if it makes it through to your final few!
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I thought I must have deleted it somehow the first time so wrote it again, but when that disappeared too I realised I must be going to spam – WordPress must be in the huff with me about something! 😉
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What have you done?! 😀
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Glad you enjoyed the book. I have not read it but it made waves on social media last year
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I try to ignore book hype as so often I find books overhyped, so I’m glad I didn’t know about it in this instance!
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I like creepy… The cover is pretty creepy, too!
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The cover is *so* creepy!
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