Institut Ramon LLull

In this unclassifiable book studded with literary references, three novellas hang together like a Francis Bacon triptych of studies for a crucifixion. The characters are unredeemed, oblique, captives: a daughter searching for clues as her father slips into aphasia; an obsessive professor turned museum volunteer; teachers searching for a common language with their multicultural students; a mother who abandons her family with a somewhat cryptic Chekhov quote.

Rootlessness, miscommunication, grief, and relationships emerge as themes in a dense, polished, intense narrative style that manages to be minimalist yet heavy with feeling and perspicacity. These three dreamily ambiguous tales refuse to offer easy answers to the trials of the examined life, the qualms of readers searching for salvation in books yet afraid they might die without ever having a brilliant thought of their own.