The dark, suspenseful debut novel Eating Earth by Dolores Reyes brings the reader to the edge of his seat.
Those who sleep badly from exciting films can Eating Earth, the penetrating debut novel by Argentine Dolores Reyes, might be best not to read it just before bedtime. Because it is a macabre story that gets under the skin. The narrator is a girl left alone with her older brother Walter after their mother dies.
The girl has a special gift; when she eats earth, she sees in a vision what happened to someone and where. At her mother's funeral, she puts a bit of earth in her mouth: 'They beat her. I see the blows but don't feel them. The seething fists pounding holes in her flesh. I see Dad, hands similar to mine, strong arms with the fist attached that claws its way into your heart and flesh like a fishhook. And something flowing away, like a river.'
In the poor area of town where the girl and Walter live, violence and murder are commonplace. When her teacher Ana, whom 'Earth Eater' loved dearly, goes missing, she knows where the police can find her body. But Ana keeps knocking on her door in the night. 'Her bones were not tame like pets, they haunted me, returned seething with the devastating energy of those who fight for justice.'
More and more people are seeking the help of the Earth Eater to find out what happened to their loved ones. Often that person is already dead; in some cases, the girl can prevent someone's death. At the same time, her gift also frightens people and sometimes even endangers Walter and her, as not everyone is keen on the truth. Mentally, all the misery she sees falls harder and harder on her.
When the book was published in 2019, the Spanish newspaper El País named the best Spanish-language novel of the year. Eating Earth is a fascinating, magical-realist novel with plenty of subcutaneous tension. In this story full of darkness, beautiful sentences and metaphors light up like fireflies in the dark. Reyes sketches a chilly world, but the unconditional love between brother and sister provides some warmth. A novel that you will finish in no time, but will not easily forget.
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