Such Small Hands

by Andrés Barba, Lisa Dillman (Translator), Edmund White (Afterword)

Life changes at the orphanage the day seven-year-old Marina shows up. She is different from the other girls: at once an outcast and object of fascination. As Marina struggles to find her place, she invents a game whose rules are dictated by a haunting violence. Written in hypnotic, lyrical prose, alternating between Marina’s perspective and the choral we of the other girls, Such Small Hands evokes the pain of loss and the hunger for acceptance.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Novella, Spain, Spanish Literature, Gothic, Literary Fiction

112 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

Andrés Barba is the award-winning author of numerous books, including Such Small Hands and The Right Intention. He was one of Granta's Best Young Spanish novelists and received the Premio Herralde for Luminous Republic, which will be translated into twenty languages.

Reviews

[Jesse (JesseTheReader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one! It was a little predictable and not as scary as I was expecting, but it still maintained an eerie feeling throughout the book that I loved. I was SHOOK reading the afterword and finding out that it's based on a true story.

[Jean Menzies · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one has left me with a lot of thoughts running through my mind, and that is why I'm writing a short review immediately after having finished it when I should really be going to sleep. I was expecting some classic creepy orphanage story and instead got something a lot deeper. I'm torn between giving this one three or four stars so let's read that as a 3 1/2, despite goodreads refusal to allow that option.

This novella uses short simple sentences to convey complex emotions. Amongst those it explorers are loneliness, especially that of a child left without a family, a desperate need to fit in and find companionship, a distrust of those who are different from you but also who you see yourself in and the ever closely linked love and hate.

We meet our seven year old protagonist as she learns both of her parents have died as the result of a car crash. She is then sent to a boarding school come orphanage where she lives with a small group of other girls. She longs to fit in with them but they see her as having disrupted their this far unaltered existence. Their interactions are tense and fraught. They set out to explore themselves and their relationships to one another at a pivotal time in a young girl's life, which results in a disturbing game that slowly escalates: thus the creep factor.

I think this novella has a lot going for it but it also felt somewhat insubstantial. I almost needed more. It could have been one story in a collection as it seemed to fly by. I felt as though I was never quite able to get my teeth stuck in. I think, however, if it hadn't been such an interesting concept this wouldn't have even bothered me in the same way.

Definitely food for thought.

2 months later: Going through my 2017 reads I spotted this book again and thought I would add an update to my review. Although I had a mixture of feelings when this story was over, fascinated by it but unsure if it was enough, I have to say it has stayed with me. The picture it painted was vivid and I definitely think it worth a read.

[Zoeytron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dolls have such small hands. So do little girls. And caterpillars have no hands at all. Is there a common denominator here?

Broken, coming from together. Moody, surreal, and slightly grotesque.

[inciminci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little Marina loses both her parents in a car accident and ends up in an orphanage. The girls there are as hostile towards her as they are fascinated by her, her past midlleclass life with parents and the accident scars on her shoulders, making her look like a fallen angel. Their constant bullying undergoes a sort of metamorphosis when Marina starts taking control of them and shows she's indeed the creepiest of them all. Their reaction just might take uncontrollable and lethal dimensions.

The fact that all orphanage girls speak in one Greek chorus versus Marina's sole point of view makes this a very odd reading experience, it gives a menacing, foreboding tone. The actual plot never lives up to that tone though, maybe it shouldn't. The style is really detached, there are exactly zero emotions shown here, although it is clear how traumatized at least Marina should be, and maybe the weirdness of this all may be a result of her not being able to respond to this situation with proper emotions. I don't know. It's a quick, captivating read in any case.

This is the ShiSha Dark read for January, theme is Creepy Kids.

[Alex.andthebooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ta książka miała ogromny potencjał, ale zbyt wiele było tu niedopowiedzeń, mam wrażenie, że forma utrudniła odbiór. Bardzo chciałam ją pokochać, ale w tym przypadku jedynie doceniam.

[Evi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μικρούλι, νουβέλα μόνο 113 σελίδων και με όμορφο εξώφυλλο.
.
Η αλήθεια είναι πως αρχικά δυσκολεύτηκα να το κατάταξω σε κάποια κατηγορία. Ωστόσο στην πορεία μου προκάλεσε ποικίλα και βαθιά συναισθήματα.
.
Η 7χρονη Μαρίνα χάνει τους γονείς της σε αυτοκινητιστικό δυστύχημα. Ελλείψει συγγενών καταλήγει σε ένα ορφανοτροφείο θηλέων.
Δεν κλαίει και δεν καταρρέει έπειτα από το τραγικό συμβάν. Αδυνατεί να γίνει ανθρώπινη, να αντιδράσει στη συμφορά και βρίσκεται υπό το καθεστώς του ανομολόγητου σοκ. Η μικρή μοιάζει με κυνηγημένο ζώο και το βλέμμα της είναι σκοτεινό. Δε νιώθει συγκίνηση, αναπολεί το παρελθόν της και αναφέρεται σ' αυτό με τρόπο ζηλευτό, ώστε να καταπνίξει υπόκωφα τα πραγματικά της συναισθήματα.
Στην πορεία επιδιώκει να βιώσει το άγγιγμα των συνομηλίκων της, να αντικαταστήσει την αγάπη που βίαια έχασε. Αυτό την οδηγεί να προβεί σε πράξεις ακατανόητες για να διατηρήσει τη δύναμη της. Επινοεί ένα παιχνίδι, που της δίνει την ψευδαίσθηση της συμπόνιας και νιώθει ότι επανεντάσσεται εν μέρει στη ζωή νιώθοντας κυρίαρχος με τους δικούς της κανόνες. Λίγο βίαιους, λίγο τρομερούς. Ένα συναίσθημα φόβου αρχίζει και πλανάται στην ατμόσφαιρα.
.
Ο αναγνώστης διαπιστώνει πως το ότι η Μαρίνα γνώρισε γονείς την καθιστά αυτόματα διαφορετική από τις άλλες τρόφιμες. Αυτό έχει ως αποτέλεσμα τη διατάραξη των ισορροπιών στο ίδρυμα. Χάνεται η εμπιστοσύνη μεταξύ των κοριτσιών.
.
Εν κατακλείδι, οι γραμμές που περιγράφουν την παιδική αθωότητα είναι πολύ λεπτές και καταργούνται από την πλοκή της ιστορίας. Μέσα από το βιβλίο διαφαίνονται οι σχέσεις που έχει το παιδικό παιχνίδι και οι κανόνες αυτού με τη διαφορετικότητα και την παρόρμηση. Φαινόμενο bullying. Ο συγγραφέας δεν παίρνει την πλευρά του θύματος, ούτε και του θύτη φυσικά. Αφήνει κάποια γεγονότα να εννοηθούν. Πώς να περιγράψεις άλλωστε την παιδική σκληρότητα; Υπογραμμίζει μόνο πως η αγνότητα των παιδιών διαγράφεται από την οργή, που ηλικία δεν έχει.
Διαβάστε το!

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now deservedly winner of the 2018 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize

“Tonight we’re going to play a game,” she said.
“What game, Marina?”
“Just a game I know.”
“How do you play?”
“I’ll tell you tonight.”
“Can’t you tell us now?”
“No. Tonight.”

Andres Berba’s Such Small Hands is just 84 pages long but packs a very unsettling punch, the sort of books that lingers in one’s mind and is best not read just before bed, in much the same way as one of my books of 2017, Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin.

And as with Fever Dream I would be surprised if it doesn’t feature in the annual translated literature awards – and indeed much credit must also be given to the translation from Lisa Dillman (BTBA winner for Signs Preceding the End of the World) who, as with Megan McDowell in Fever Dream, successfully conveys the atmosphere into English.

The mood is established with the rather chilling epigraph: And when the doll was so disfigured that she no longer looked like a human baby, only then did the girl begin to play with her.
taken from the anonymous story of a young girl during the Russian occupation of Berlin.

Andrés Barba has acknowledged that his inspiration for the story was an an anecdote reported (rather incidentally) in Clarice Lispector’s short story ‘The Smallest Woman in the World’, apparently itself a true story from a Rio de Janeiro orphanage:

Having no dolls to play with, and maternity already pulsating terribly in the hearts of those orphans, the sly little girls had concealed another girl’s death from the nun. They hid the corpse in a wardrobe until the nun left, and played with the dead girl, giving her baths and little snacks, punishing her just so they could kiss her afterward, consoling her.

And he has suggested the mood of the book was, largely subconsciously, influenced by Goya’s Witches Sabbath:



Such Small Hands opens with the death of a young girl, Marina’s, parents in a car accident, an accident which leaves her needing several months of medical treatment as well as counselling:

Marina learned to say [the words] without sadness, like a name recited for strangers, like my name is Marina and I'm seven years old. “My father died instantly, my mother in the hospital.” Her mouth hardly moved and once she'd spoken, her lips were expressionless, the upper one jutting out slightly above the lower.

When she is well enough – physically if not mentally – she is placed in an orphanage, where her presence disrupts the homogeneity and settled existence of the current children.

The story of her time there alternates between a 3rd person narration from Marina’s perspective, and a Greek chorus (per Barba’s own comments – “a way to give the girls a voice that was both conscious and childlike. It was a literary device that allowed me to be inside and outside the girls”) consisting of the collective voices of the other girls.

For the chorus, Marina’s privileged middle-class upbringing leads to curiosity but also jealousy (we didn’t know sadness until we had a point of comparison):

It was as if Marina had already seen all the movies, already gone on all field trips, already played all games; there was something terrible in her past. She’d already lived so many things. She buried her head in the pillow and saw everything, she rested her head and it was heavy as a rock, filled with memories, she pressed down on her pencil (How many pencils had she had? Thousands? Millions?) and even the pencil was a little envious, wishing she would use it to write all those things that Marina had already lived.

She, in turn, struggles to see the difference between the other children, who dominate her during the day, stealing and dismembering the doll she was given by the hospital psychologist: that thing she loved instead of loving us.

But she has a very different relationship with them at night (their daytime hatred was the inverse of their nocturnal love):

All together, they looked like a team of sleepy little horses (*). Something in their faces slackened, became friendly. They slept with an unbearable patience. When they were asleep they were like an oil painting, they gave Marina the impression that different faces rose up from beneath their faces, faces that bore no resemblance to their daytime voices: peculiar, polished faces. They had a defiant, challenging quality about them despite being at rest, like dozing predators.

* In the original: 'Todas juntas parecían una recua de caballos pequeños y adormilados’

And she eventually introduces them to her game:

Each night, one of you is the doll. I put on her makeup, and she’s the doll. And the rest of us look at her and play with her. She’s a good dolly, and we’re good to her.

And, indeed, each night armed with some stolen make-up and a child-sized doll's dress:

Marina pulls back a little, admiring her work. Then, calmly, she says
“Now you’re a doll.”
And now you’re a doll.
Suddenly, just like that, you’re a doll.

You are passed from one set of hands to the next, from one bed to the next. You’re never alone again. Safe inside the doll you love harder, feel deeper, exist boundlessly, with no moderation. And yet you disregard the sound of girls kissing your cheek. Nothing matters now.

You have to let your arms flop at your sides so the girl will hold them up. You’re frozen there, motionless, skin moist from a warm kiss that means nothing. Then you feel yanking on your dress, greedy hands. The easiest thing is just to think you’re going to die. But that thought, to a doll, has no meaning. You feel it, but in no way does it stir you. Your eyes slowly drain of color until they’re completely vacant. Your temperature drops, your heartbeat slows. You’re not outside of anything, you’re inside; that’s why they can leave their secrets with you. They inch their lips closer to your ear and whisper.

But one night Marina chooses herself to be the doll ...

Recommended.

Source for the author’s views: https://granta.com/andres-barba-in-co...

[Eeva · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wtf did I just read?
Can I please have my hour back?

This novella has a really interesting premise but fails to deliver. It's not particulary creepy or spooky. It's weird, and I don't mean "fun weird" just plain "weird".
Reading afterword really helps with understanding what the author wanted to convey, but it's a shame that the book itself wasn't able to do that.

[Mariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
Otro de esos libros que quizá me hubieran gustado más si hubiera leído en lugar de escuchar el audiolibro. Es súper corto (el audiolibro dura 2 horas) y aún así me plantee varias veces abandonarlo. Por un lado la prosa es buena y logra generar una atmósfera inquietante, sin embargo no logró que me interesara lo suficiente como para que me impactara el final. Estoy en una racha de leer sobre lo desgraciados que pueden ser los niños (La Chica de al Lado, El Quinto Hijo y ahora éste). No sé qué mensaje me está intentando enviar la vida, pero sin duda cruzaré la banqueta la próxima vez que vea un niño caminando hacia mi, jaja.

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I *really* liked this. There is a subtle Gothic flavor to the lyrical prose and anxious tension. Dark & moody like an old, black & white movie but also insidious and clever with modern touches. It's fast paced, easy to sink into and perfectly wicked right when it needs to be.
I will read more by this author.

[°•.Melina°•. · Rating 5 out of 5]

دستانی چنین کوچک | ترجمه ملیحه بهارلو | نشر فانوس
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭حتما حتما بخونیدش.
این دیگه چی بود-
قلمش، ایده‌ش (که از روی واقعیته) فضاش زبانش توصیفاتش... خیلی از ترجمه‌ش خوشحالم، ادبیات اسپانیا هیچوقت ناامیدم نکرده‌. دیروز هم تو یه نشست ادبی درموردش صحبت کردیم و میام به زودی جمع بندیش میکنم اینجا. یه فیلم هم ازش ساخته شده
Such small hands (2020)
که فکر نکنم حالاحالا ها بخوام ببینمش.
نمیدونم شایدم امشب دیدم- من که دیگه تروما زده شدم اینم روش.☠️
🔖آبان ۱۴۰۴

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

the third of andrés barba's books to be translated into english (after rain over madrid and august, october), such small hands (las manos pequeñas) may be the best one yet. slim, yet unbelievably taut, the spanish writer's novella murmurs with increasing dread and unease.

marina, seven years old, is suddenly orphaned when the automobile she's riding in with her parents flips and slides into oncoming traffic. as her once-privileged life has ineluctably ended, young marina is sent to an orphanage where she simultaneously intrigues and incites her fellow orphans. a nocturnal game she invents, at first innocent (if not a little strange), builds to an ominous conclusion.

barba, one of granta's best young spanish-language novelists and a herralde prize shortlister, has drawn the acclaim of both vargas llosa and the late rafael chirbes (who called him "an essential writer"), among many others. with three books now available in english (and, apparently, the most celebrated still yet to come), it's becoming increasingly evident that barba is as gifted as he is prolific (he's written over a dozen books, in addition to his role as a translator [melville, conrad, james, fitzgerald, carroll, defoe, isherwood, et al.]). such small hands is focused, precise, and more than a little eerie.

but of that violence was born a dark, gurgling pleasure, the supple feeling of having won, or being on the verge of winning.

*translated from the spanish by lisa dillman (barba's rain over madrid & august, october [and two others on the way], herrera, halfon, et al.)

(4.5 stars)

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novella is beautifully written in a hypnotic and compulsive rhythm that almost compels me to like it, but in spite of its craft it is, as a story, repulsive and ultimately meaningless.

I got to the end asking myself: ok, if I think this story so questionable, then who has written a better book with a similar theme? And I came up with Loving Sabotage by Amélie Nothomb.

[George K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Το βιβλίο το αγόρασα χθες και το διάβασα σε δυο "καθισιές", μιας και για κάποιον απροσδιόριστο λόγο ήταν ένα από τα βιβλία της φετινής εκδοτικής σοδειάς που περίμενα πως και πως να διαβάσω. Τελικά, δεν ήταν ακριβώς αυτό που περίμενα. Είναι ένα βιβλίο ιδιαίτερο και αρκετά περίεργο, γεμάτο υπόνοιες, νοήματα και εικόνες, που όμως έτσι όπως είναι γραμμένο, σίγουρα δεν ταιριάζει με όλα τα αναγνωστικά γούστα. Προσωπικά δεν μου πολυάρεσε ο τρόπος γραφής και αφήγησης, με τις κάπως ποιητικές περιγραφές και σκέψεις του συγγραφέα. Μπορεί να είναι ένα βιβλίο πυκνό σε νοήματα και ιδέες και να ασχολείται με διάφορα σημαντικά ζητήματα με έναν αρκετά ιδιαίτερο τρόπο προσέγγισης, όμως στο τέλος με άφησε ολίγον τι αδιάφορο. Πάντως, μια ανάγνωση την αξίζει, αν μη τι άλλο για την ιδιαιτερότητα της γραφής.

[Harun Ahmed]

দুর্ঘটনায় বাবা-মাকে হারানোর পর ৭ বছরের মেরিনাকে ভর্তি করা হয় এক অনাথাশ্রমে। এখানকার বিচিত্র এক পুতুলখেলাকে কেন্দ্র করে গড়ে উঠেছে কাহিনি।সফল হররে জোরালো মনস্তাত্ত্বিক উপাদান থাকে, এ উপন্যাসেও আছে। ছোটদের ট্রমা, যা তারা ভাষায় প্রকাশ করতে অক্ষম, কিন্তু তার প্রবল ধ্বংসাত্মক বহিঃপ্রকাশ দেখা যায় মেরিনার জীবনে। শেষে কী হতে পারে তা অনুমেয় হলেও রক্ত হিম হয়ে যায় কারণ এরকম কিছু বাস্তবেই ঘটেছিলো!

[blondie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ιδιαίτερη γραφή, πυκνογραμμενο βιβλίο. Τα ορφανά κορίτσια τρόφιμοι του Ιδρύματος, βλέπουν την Μαρίνα που γνώρισε γονείς σαν διαφορετική εξαρχής. Οι όχι και τόσες αθώες σκέψεις και πράξεις τους δεν αρμόζουν σε 7 χρονα.
Δεν με εντυπωσίασε τόσο άφησε αίσθηση ημιτελους διηγησης.

[Sofia]

Δεν σκοπεύω να το βαθμολογήσω γιατί δεν ξέρω πως να αισθανθώ για το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο. Σε κάποια σημεία με κέρδιζε κι εκλήρωνε το σκοπό του, να είναι creepy, εστιάζοντας σε λεπτομέρειες και αναπτύσσόντας τες με τρόπο ιδιαίτερο. Απο την άλλη προς την μέση έκανε λίγο κοιλιά, κάτι που σε ένα τόσο μικρό μυθιστόρημα δεν δικαιολογείται.

[Adrienne L · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars, initially rounded to 4, but I've changed my mind.

I finished this short novella about a week ago and I've been thinking about it on and off ever since. The story opens with a car accident that leaves eight year-old Marina orphaned and alone. The reader never gets to see the "before" and like the strangers who now find themselves tasked with Marina's recovery and future, must puzzle out the behavior of a fractured girl who has shut down entirely. The language is sparse and poignant. From Marina's perspective, for example, the death of her parents is described: A second later, it broke. What did? Logic. Like a melon dropped on the ground, split in one go.

Prior to leaving the hospital for the orphanage, Marina is given a doll by the staff psychologist "to make her a real girl once and for all.." Upon her arrival, she is greeted by a Greek chorus of orphans, identified as a collective "we" in the chapters told from their perspective, who are disturbed and fascinated by this strange child who is suddenly deposited into their world like a cuckoo bird in an alien nest. "We didn't know sadness until we had a point of comparison."

From there, events take some odd and dark turns. There are certainly horrific elements, but this is definitely not a scary doll story. Ultimately, this story is haunting because it's terribly sad. I can't say enough about the writing and the translation, which are really beautiful.

[Ana Cristina Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

La infancia como espacio terrorífico, la interacción entre los niños – niñas en este caso – como fuente de horror, es lo que retrata Andrés Barba en esta breve historia, situada en un orfanato. La llegada de Marina, que ha perdido a sus padres en un accidente de coche, desencadena una dinámica enrarecida con las otras huérfanas, que la perciben como un cuerpo extraño proveniente del exterior.

La narración no es realista, sino onírica, hay muchos fragmentos que me costaron de entender y probablemente necesitaría una segunda lectura para apreciar todo el esfuerzo de estilo y originalidad que contiene.

La cuestión es que aunque la premisa me pareció interesante, el desarrollo no me entusiasmó, pero reconozco que es una obra con una fuerte personalidad.
2,5*?

[Coos Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nada acerca tanto a dos seres como tener miedo juntos

No sé si la historia es exactamente lo que yo esperaba, pero tiene chispazos muy interesantes, como la atmósfera gótica, el miedo a lo desconocido como flagelo durante toda la nouvelle, misterio y melancolía suspendidos en el aire, descripciones gráficas de lo grotesco y catastrófico, y una prosa muy elegante. Está más cerca del drama que del terror, y sin embargo todo el tiempo está presente la sensación de que algo inquietante y retorcido va a pasar. Y eventualmente, pasa.

Haré una videoreseña más completa en mi canal, para los que gusten sumarse: https://www.youtube.com/coosburton

[Martin Rondina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obra interesantísima que disfruté muchísimo, el autor supo llevarme por un sinfín de sensasiones ambiguas, la historia se torna media oscura, ya que Marina (su protagonista) es bastante particular, es un libro que me envolvió en una atmósfera opresiva desde la página uno, y eso me encanta. Recomendado!

[Ewa (humanizmowo) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pomimo tego, że w tej historii zostały poruszone tak smutne tematy, pozostaję neutralna.
Autor przedstawił dzieci z sierocińca jako dzikie istoty, które wszędzie szukały miłości. Sam pomysł jest świetny, ale jego realizacja już nie tak bardzo.

[Elizabeth (Plant Based Bride) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"How did our desire begin? We don't know. Everything was silent in our desire, like acrobats in motion, like tightrope walkers. Desire was a big knife and we were the handle."

Such Small Hands, a novella translated from the original Spanish in 2017, is an unsettling creeping horror story based on a disturbing tragedy that occurred in an orphanage in Brazil in the 1960s.

Through Marina, our seven-year-old recently orphaned protagonist, we get a glimpse of a world characterized by loneliness, loss, longing, and deep seething anger. Young girls who are so profoundly alone; harbouring a ravenous hunger to belong and be as one. A haunting game of make-believe that takes a violent turn. A nightmarish and hypnotic narrative that dives into the darkest recesses of a child's mind.


Trigger/Content Warnings: death of parents, car crash, medical content, animal cruelty, violence, fasting, murder


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[Aleksandra Pasek · Rating 3 out of 5]

przede wszystkim nigdy nie zapomnę tej książki dlatego, ponieważ czytałam ją w garażu, za jednym zamachem, bez kluczy do domu, bez telefonu, w szlafroku. xD
od tej pory zawsze będę miała kilka książek w garażu, na nieprzewidziane okoliczności.

a książka ani zła, ani wyjątkowa. czuć za to hiszpańską nutkę. gwiazdki są za kompulsywny rytm, za pewną hipnotyczność i "nieodkładalność" wynikającą ze sposobu prowadzenia narracji, z języka. duży plus za niedopowiedzenia i niedosłowności oraz nieco psychodynamiczny sznyt.
Jednakże na 4 gwiazdki to dla mnie tutaj było znacznie za mało treści.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is odd and rather disconcerting.
Marina is a young girl who loses her parents in an accident she survives and she goes to live in an orphanage.
This is part written from Marina's POV and part written by the rest of the girls as a collective.
It has a hypnotic rhythm and takes on an almost dream-like quality that sinks deeper and deeper into nightmare.
It's creepy and nasty but also beautiful and childish. It is certainly not what I expected.

[Eric Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

As adults we can recall flashes of feeling and indulgent fantasies that we experienced as children, but these are inevitably wrapped in a kind of silk-smooth nostalgia. Even memories of intense anger and pain are altered by the distance of time because this past now has a context. When you’re child there is no context. So much of literature tries to simulate the actual feeling of childhood, but only manages a sentimental simulation. But something in Andrés Barba’s narrative gets it so exactly, eerily right that it’s as if (as Edmund White pronounces in his afterword to this novella) “Barba has returned us to the nightmare of childhood.” Reading the story of seven year old Marina and the children in the orphanage she’s taken to after her parents’ death made me feel all the chaotic roiling emotion and imagination of my youth again. “Such Small Hands” is an extraordinary experience and it’s so artfully done that I’m in awe of its brilliant construction.

Read my full review of Such Small Hands by Andres Barba on LonesomeReader

[Vasilis Manias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μικρό κοριτσάκι χάνει πατέρα και μητέρα σε τροχαίο δυστύχημα και μεταφέρεται μέσα σε ελάχιστο χρόνο σε ένα ορφανοτροφείο θηλέων όπου την παρακολουθούμε να δημιουργεί άθελά της μία παράξενη χημεία και έναν ιδιαίτερο δίαυλο επικοινωνίας με τον υπόλοιπο κόσμο και κυρίως με τα κορίτσια του ιδρύματος τα οποία την αντιμετωπίζουν ως θεό αλλά και ως παρία.
Σκληρό βιβλίο, από τα μικρά σε όγκο τα οποία πιάνω συχνά στα χέρια μου για να φεύγουν από μπροστά μου, αλλά με τις τελευταίες 30 σελίδες του να με έχουνε δεμένο χειροπόδαρα μέχρι την τελική σκηνή όπου δεν ήξερα πραγματικά αν αυτή η σκληρότητα των νηπίων που διακρίνει, ξεχωρίζει και αναδεικνύει ο Άντρες Μπάρμπα, τα οποία πάντα λένε ευθαρσώς οτιδήποτε σκέφτονται χωρίς καμία επίπτωση αλλά και χωρίς κανένα φίλτρο, μπορεί ή θα μπορούσε ποτέ να κάνει πραγματικότητα ένα τέτοιο σενάριο όπως αυτό που σχημάτισε μέσα στο μυαλό του και αποτύπωσε στο χαρτί.
Σκληρό. Μου θύμισε και κάπως το Άρωμα του Ζισκιντ σε σημεία του. Αλλά ναι, εννοείται μου άρεσε.

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seven-year-old Marina lives through an automobile accident that kills both of her parents. Following recovery from her injuries—these having left a long scar across her torso—she is sent to an orphanage, where the girls living there quietly observe her. Marina is an aberration among them—one whose previous middle-class upbringing and lifestyle is foreign to them. They who have lived their lives without true freedom or family support in this isolated place—their only guidance from a sole overseer referred to as ‘the adult’. This is the alien world of children, masterfully depicted by an adult writer. Or it is how we perhaps imagine it was—mystical and hermetic in its logic, feral and sometimes rabid in its games. Though the girls in the orphanage have names, these are only offered to us as a string of meaningless appellations—for the most part the girls’ identities are interchangeable within the narrative. They think and act as one, and though a few individuals among them approach Marina on their own, none of them come to stand with her. Always there is a wariness emanating from this constellation of girls surrounding her. The doll theme is interesting here, too, as I often encounter it in a literary context as patriarchal critique (e.g., The Youngest Doll), but these girls are very young and living apart from any male influence. Without giving away too much in what is a rather short novel, I’ll just say that the doll theme runs throughout the book from the point of Marina receiving a doll while she is still in the hospital all the way to the very end, and it contributes significantly in defining the uneasy, haunting relationship that arises between Marina and the other girls at the orphanage. The doll theme here comprises security and comfort, otherness, the tension of the individual versus the herd, and it is entwined with whispered secrets, naked fears, and unnamed desires. (4.5)

[Martyn Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This I think was originally written in Spanish. I don't know if it's the style of the writing, or the fact that it's translated from Spanish, but this is a really strange read.

Before we get stuck into the review, as well as a reader, I'm a author. Hence the free plug:-

I recently enrolled most of my titles in Kindle Unlimited, so if you're a subscriber please check them out. My latest release is the subversive YA vampire story 'Ofelia'.


Right! That's out of the way. Thanks for bearing with. So, 'Such Small Hands' what was it like? Well, I found it surreal in the extreme. I don't know if it's the tone or the use of language, but the vivid imagery seemed almost dream-like. The perspective in this book shifts regularly between the main character, Marina, and her contemporaries at the orphanage. Marina, is orphaned by a car accident. This incident scars her physically and emotionally. And the scars run deep too. When she arrives at the orphanage, you get a sense that newcomers are rare. She's probably unique in fact. She's also at odds with the rest of the girls. I think Barba is trying to establish that Marina comes from a somewhat privileged background compared to the rest of the girls. The other orphans often rail at Marina's tales of visiting Disney Land or having seeing films they watch before. It's as if she's enjoyed a different life, and her account of it is like a window into that other life. They question whether her claims are true, but in reality Marina's claims are probably not that fanciful.

The other girls also seem to want to love Marina and accept her, however they find it hard, if not impossible to emotionally connect with her. Partly because of her vastly different life up to that point and partly because she's so broken and traumatized by what happened to her, that she's emotionally distant. I think the girls seem almost jealous of the doll that Marina was given. Marina carries the doll around everywhere and seems to love it. Minor spoiler alert: The other girls steal the doll, break it into pieces and bury it in the grounds.

I don't know if this is the event that leads to Marina inventing 'The Game', but I suspect so. I really, really want to talk about 'The Game' in this review, but I can't without spoiling the whole book. What is the game? It's a game Marina invents that the girls play every night after dark. In principle it sounds innocent enough, but when I put myself in the position of the girl whom Marina chooses for the night - I find myself feeling unsettled. The girls, for some reason, love the game. They're still mean to Marina, alternatively ignoring her or pulling her hair and calling her names during the day, but come nightfall, they're desperate to play 'The Game'. I don't know why I found 'The Game' so sinister, but I did. Even before the knife was introduced. I also don't know why the other girls are so reluctant to let Marina choose herself for the game when she tries to.

I'll be honest, I didn't know how this ended. I think there were subtle clues at to what was going on, but Barba generally leaves it to the reader's imagination. After reading this, I looked for more information online and an interview with Barba shed some light on the probable outcome of the game at the point where the book ends, but please don't read the interview first. The introduction and playing of the game is the spine of this story, and it's darkest, but most satisfying aspect.

In short, this was a magical, dream-like read, that turned into a nightmare. A nightmare which drew you in and left you feeling almost disgusted, but so intrigued you could NOT stop reading even if you wanted to. Two signs of a great book are that it stays with you, long after you've put it down and you want more, you're frustrated that the story ended. Both of these were true of this book.

So why not 5 stars? Well, I REALLY wanted more. I feel like there's story missing? Maybe if the ending had been explicit I'd have felt more satisfied, even though the story might have lost some of its mystique. But honestly, the book ending how it did left me feeling like I was leaving the dinner party before they'd served dessert.

Martyn Stanley

[Paula Mota · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5*
#enabrilleemosenespañol

“É o momento em que Marina descobre uma coisa: ‘Sou diferente.’ (...) Ver-se-ia obrigada a fazer de si própria o que o destino lhe impôs através da sua descoberta. É como se trouxesse consigo constantemente tudo o que sabe, como quem traz consigo qualquer coisa de altivo, qualquer coisa de cruel, uma bandeira. Sou diferente.

De início, quando confrontada com a morte dos pais, a protagonista de “As Mãos Pequenas”, uma menina de 7 anos, pareceu-me uma versão infantil de Meursault em “O Estrangeiro” de Albert Camus. “A menina não transborda, não chora, não reage.” Marina é estranha e é a forasteira quando vai para o orfanato, onde não consegue relacionar-se com os outros e não reage como esperam que faça.
Na terceira parte, o autor passa do estranho para o surreal, do surreal para o mau gosto e do mau gosto para o risível, dando cabo de uma história que prometia. Não é gótico quem quer.