Margarita García Robayo

#ReadAroundTheWorld. #Colombia

Fish Soup is made up of two novellas and an award-winning collection of short stories by Colombian author Margarita García Robayo, translated from Spanish.

The novella Waiting for a Hurricane is about a girl who dreams of escaping the poverty of her life in Colombia by any means possible. The people in her life are merely steps on her ladder to freedom.

The novella Sex Education is about a girl who struggles to reconcile her Catholic school’s teaching of abstinence with the morals and behaviour of everyone around her.

Worse Things is a collection of short stories mostly about people struggling with life and family.

The book is well-written, with a degree of cynicism, some keen observations on human nature and poetic descriptions. It is gritty, earthy, and touches on the dark side of life with allusions to rape and child sex abuse. I enjoyed Robayo’s style, my only complaint being the usual one for me with short stories: that they end too quickly, just as I am getting involved in the story. I would love to read a full length novel by this author.… (més)

Unlikeable Characters will Repulse
Review of the Charco Press paperback edition (2020) translated from the Spanish language original "Tiempo muerto" (Time-Out) (2017)

The unlikeable protagonist is definitely a challenge for a writer. In that sense Robayo sets herself an even greater challenge by having two of them, and then even adding several same-inclined cameo players alongside them. And yet, I kept reading on. Probably in the hopes of some redemption or salvation which never materialized. Overall this was a 1-star “did not like”, but rates a bump up for the attempt and for the writing. The only relief came in the child-caregiver and the daughter as far as I can remember. There was an attempt at a breakout to an idyllic retreat to an isolated beach by the family as a whole in a flashback, which it seemed that the mother attempted to re-create in the climax without the husband being there. Both characters are still left lost and unfulfilled in the end.

I read Holiday Heart as part of the Borderless Book Club which has been organized by Peirene Press and 7 other UK independent publishers for a 16 week period (May 14 to August 20, 2020) during this current world pandemic situation. It is the successor to the earlier Translated Fiction Online Book Club which was organized for 6 weeks.

Trivia and Link
Holiday Heart is an actual real-life cardiac syndrome which is named for a possible reaction to over-indulgence during get-away / vacation experiences.… (més)