Whiling away

by Alejandra Parejo, Carla Sicard (Translator)

Alejandra Parejo is a hunter of images and small every day stories. Her eye and writing usually perch on characters that seem to be ripped off from an apparently insignificant event, where there is neither a before nor an after, but the sheer length of an instant. A decisive instant though, many times dizzying, usually marked by the topics she usually resorts relationships, betrayal, occasional love, loneliness, and not rarely, the outbreak of a tragic outcome or a surprising element that confers a twist of fate of the men and women she portrays. Parejo’s tales are extremely concise and in her shortness, we find her trademark. A minimal extension that works as the compression of a post stamp or as two frames per second, taken from a movie we know little about and will definitely not know in all. The photographic look of the author, the click she offers from her stories and fictional beings, is the core of her narrative strategy, which seeks to capture a dramatic moment in a 10 x 15-photo format. In that sense, these stories usually work like a skit or a theater play composed by an only act, in which we ignore the psychology of the subjects involved, even the moral or ethical consequences of their acts, in order to focus only on the creative energy of the action, on the mere happening. Her stories are often accompanied by images, which not only illustrate her writing but also are able to summarize the key argument, the causes, or the code hidden in the ending. It is no coincidence that all the stories that make up this book, have been kept in a blog named photo-stories. Undoubtedly, the most accurate denomination we can approach and enjoy this splendid first storybook.

22 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 7, 2017

About the author

Alejandra Parejo nació un mes antes de tiempo, en febrero de 1990. Una isla del Mediterráneo fue su primer hogar y, hasta hace poco, el único lugar al que consideraba su casa. Licenciada en Publicidad y Comunicación Audiovisual, ha trabajado como copywriter y guionista para agencias y marcas de todo tipo, siendo Atresmedia uno de sus principales clientes. Su pasión por las palabras desde muy pequeña la llevó a estudiar en la Escuela de Escritores de Madrid. Tras decenas de relatos y borradores desechados, a los 29 años publica Una familia normal, su primera novela.