cover image Lucia

Lucia

Salvador Sostres. Edhasa, $19 (128pp) ISBN 978-84-350-0886-0

A journalist with Madrid's El Mundo and author of the short story collection Libro de los imb ciles (Book of the Imbeciles, Edhasa, 2001), Sostres makes his debut as a novelist with this short book about teenage angst. Since her parents' divorce at age eight, Lucia has believed that she has failed in her life's mission. As she struggles into her teens, she searches for happiness in the midst of a hidden sexual awakening and secretive partying, as her distracted mother attempts to create a new life for her family. Lucia's daring and shameless acts force her defeated mother to send her to boarding school in England. Sostres's book, which reads more like a short confessional than a novel, offers Lucia's tale in chronological fashion from the tenacious 20-year-old's first-person perspective. Elements of Lucia's narrative have the potential to captivate, such as her relationships with her prudent, discreet mother and with Abuela Mercedes, her grandmother ""the spy""; her casual sexual experimentation with her older brother; and her desperate yearning to connect with her unreliable father, who has a penchant for women and drink. But hasty and often meager descriptions cause Lucia to fall short of compelling. A quick read with a surprise ending, this book is an optional purchase for public libraries and bookstores. Marta Lucia, New York