The Pain of Others

Spanish writer Hernández (Anoxia) chronicles in this searching autofiction his attempt to write a novel about his boyhood best friend, Nicolás, who killed his older sister, Rosi, when he was 18, before jumping off a cliff to his death. The events took place on Christmas Eve 1995, when Nicolás’s parents found Rosi dead in their home in the remote region of Murcia in southeastern Spain. They initially believed someone broke in, and that quiet former altar boy Nicolás had been kidnapped. Soon, though, Nicolás’s car was found along with his body, and everyone but his mother came to accept that he killed Rosi. The reason for the crime, though, remained murky. Hoping to get to the truth, Miguel seeks court records related to the case, and talks with a local judge who speculates that Nicolás was sexually abusing Rosi and was jealous that she had a boyfriend. Though Miguel doesn’t solve the mystery of Nicolás’s motive, he offers a weighty reflection on the repressed Catholic lowlands of his and Nicolás’s childhood, where “cold sinks into your bones and the damp into your brain.” It’s an impressive reckoning. (Apr.)